


Story Time

by Morgan_Dhu



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 22:38:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 41,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19450903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morgan_Dhu/pseuds/Morgan_Dhu
Summary: Xena and Gabrielle must defeat a winged monster that has been devouring villagers while deepening their relationship.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> "Story Time" is copyright © 1997 by Morgan MacLeod, all rights reserved. Do not distribute, archive, or repost without prior permission from the author.
> 
> The characters of Xena and Gabrielle belong to MCA and/or Renaissance Pictures... if you don't tell anyone I took them out to play, I won't either. If anyone asks, this work was written solely for personal enjoyment, and is in no way intended to infringe on copyrights held by MCA and/or Renaissance Pictures.
> 
> Perceptive readers will notice that certain characters either belong to Paramount Communications Ltd, or are based on characters belonging to Paramount. It's especially important to note that I in no way intend to infringe upon their copyrights in these matters, as this is, as I said earlier, a non-commercial, non-profit work for personal enjoyment only.
> 
> On the other hand, Ancient Greece, its history and mythology, are in the public domain, so I can do whatever I want to them, and I did.
> 
> This story contains some violence, as well as sexual activity between consenting adults, so if you are under 18, or offended by such matters, or have the misfortune to live somewhere where such things are illegal, you are advised not to proceed, and neither I nor the inventors of the Net are liable for whatever may happen if you do.
> 
> This story is assumed to take place after the story arc involving the episodes Return Of Callisto, Intimate Stranger, and Ten Little Warlords, but in a parallel universe quite different from that which ultimately issued from the pens and/or keyboards of the creators. For instance, in this parallel universe, there never was, and never will be, a Dahok.

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

###  Prologue 

The ancient storyteller stood for a moment in the opened doorway,watching the children at play in the fields. Their shouts and laughter called to her, drawing a smile onto her lips, reminding her of days long gone, when she too had burned with such life, such fire, such ceaseless energy. Those days were long gone; but now she had memories, and knowledge and peace. It was a fair trade.

Her gnarled, dark-skinned fingers tightened on the smooth round handle of her walking stick as she slowly crossed the portico, and gingerly seated herself on a bench in the sunshine, where the warmth of a summer afternoon could ease the nagging pain in her joints. But her voice was clear and firm and sweetly carrying as she called out to the children. 

"Story time... come and quiet down now... it's story time... sit beside me and I'll tell you a story." 

Like kittens at the sound of pouring milk in a bowl, they came running, tumbling over one another, bouncing and jostling as each tried to gain one of the coveted spots nestled against the feet of the storyteller. Once all were settled, she shushed them, until their excited babble ceased. 

"All right, children. Today is a choosing day. Who's turn is it today to choose the story?" 

One little girl jumped up immediately. "It's my turn, it's mine!" 

The storyteller smiled, a smile with a little more than her usual indulgence, for the bright-eyed, sharp-faced little girl was her own sister's daughter's child. "I think you're right. If I remember, it is your turn, because last choosing day, it was Tomas, who lives in the house next to you," she responded. "Does anyone disagree?" The children all shook their heads. "Well, then, it must be your turn to choose. What story do you want to hear?" 

"You know." 

"Oh do I? How can I really know unless you tell me?" 

"You know... tell us a story about the Warrior Princess." 

The other children chimed in. "Yes, The Warrior Princess" "Xena!" "And Gabrielle!" "Gabrielle and Xena!" 

"Calm down, children, calm down. As soon as you are all very, very quiet, I will tell you a tale of Xena, the Warrior Princess, and her soul-mate, the Bard Gabrielle. Is everybody quiet? All right then, I will begin, not at the beginning, for who among us can know the beginnings of things, but at the time when first I met the Warrior Princess and the Bard..." 

### Chapter One

"I hate travelling in the rain." Gabrielle yanked the edges of her cloak more tightly around her. The hem snagged on a waterlogged bush, and as she pulled it free, a shower of water drenched her arm. "Even more, I hate travelling in the forest in the rain." Turning to her side to see the effect her pronouncements had made on her travelling companion, she tripped on a mud-covered tree root hidden by the gloom. A strong hand reached out to steady her. She steadied herself, then pushed the arm away with a show of annoyance. "And I really hate travelling in the forest in the rain at night!"

"Watch your step, Gabrielle... you could end up even wetter." Had the woman's face been less obscured by the elements, one might have seen the shadow of a wry smile curl one side of her mouth. Gabrielle stopped in her tracks. The tall cloaked figure continued on for a few strides, her horse on a loose lead at her side. 

"Xena. I'm not going another step without an explanation." 

The warrior looked back over her shoulder. "Then you're going to get a lot wetter, aren't you?" She continued her cautious but steady pace forward into the gloom. 

Gabrielle looked after her for a moment, then adjusted the pack that hung from her shoulder, and leaned into her staff once more, stepping carefully but quickly to catch up with the other woman. "All right, you win, I'm coming... but can you at least tell me why we're here in the wet and the dark and in the middle of a forest instead of in a nice warm room in that inn back in Tirente. I mean really, Xena, I know you always have a good reason when you do this kind of thing, but why did you have to barge into my room just as I was falling asleep, and tell me to meet you in the stables in fifteen minutes or you'd leave without me? We haven't had a nice night in an inn in weeks..." 

"Gabrielle." 

"...Huh? What, Xena?" 

"How do you expect me to tell you anything if you keep on talking?" 

"Well, I'm not talking now... well, actually, I am, but..." She faltered into silence. 

"I heard some news down in the common room after you went to bed. If I'm right, there's something very dangerous starting in the mountains near the coast... watch out for that branch." She swept it out of the bard's path, and continued forward. 

After waiting for a few moments for Xena to finish her explanation, Gabrielle began again with more than a hint of irritation in her voice. "You can't just tell me that little bit and then clam up again... well, you can, because you did, but..." she began to lose her footing on the muddy leaves beneath her feet, but once more a firm hand caught her and held her up. 

"That's why I don't want to tell you all about it now - when you talk, it gets harder to keep your balance in this muck." 

"Just give me one good reason for this, and I'll stop bothering you about it... for now, anyway. Just one." 

"I think it's something I've seen before, and couldn't stop then, and some good men and women died. If we get there in time, maybe I can stop it this time." 

"What is it?" 

"I'll tell you about it when we do make camp. I want to get into the foothills before then, though... better chance of shelter." Xena stopped, turned and held Gabrielle's gaze with her eyes. The younger woman stopped as well, frozen by the intensity of that look. "This is important, Gabrielle. I wouldn't put you through this for anything less." 

"I know." 

"Right then, let's get moving." She started forward again, taking the brunt of the splattering rain that fell from above as she pushed through the foliage, Gabrielle trudging closely behind her and Argo following her lead. 

For the next hour they forged on in relative silence, punctuated by the occasional curt warning of obstacles ahead from the woman walking point, a few equine snorts of protest, and the somewhat more frequent exclamations of surprise or disgust, and muttered but eloquent curses from the sodden bard trailing in their wake. Slowly the forest began to thin, though the ground, as it went from waterlogged turf and spongy leaves to patches of mud amid loose stones, remained as treacherous. When the angle of the rough and unmarked trail they followed began to rise beneath them, Xena extended her awareness as far as she could, searching for any sign of a place to make camp in relative shelter. Gabrielle was already fatigued, and even she, with her greater strength and endurance, was tiring from the constant need to strain ahead into darkness to avoid losing the path, and to choose her steps carefully to avoid losing her balance. But as the terrain grew increasingly rockier, she had hopes that they could find an overhanging rock, perhaps even an empty cave. 

They had been climbing for perhaps half an hour when Xena came to a sudden stop, bringing Gabrielle to an unceremonious halt just behind her. 

"Wha-" 

Xena pivoted soundlessly, bringing her face close enough that even in the dark, Gabrielle could see that she held her finger to her mouth in warning. Gabrielle closed her mouth, and Xena leaned forward, brushing her lips against Gabrielle's ear. "There's someone ahead of us. Stay here with Argo. I'll be back." 

Moving with the greatest care over the uncertain ground, keeping to shadows and the concealment of the scrubby trees that still surrounded them, Xena crept towards the unknown traveller ahead of them. At first, the trace odours of a wetly burning wood fire were all she had to guide her in the right direction, but as she drew closer with ever greater caution, a few tiny flickers of light appeared in the gloom ahead. At last, she was close enough to see, while remaining unseen. 

Sitting comfortably in a natural crevice between two large boulders, shielded from the rain by a latticework of branches that roofed the sheltering cleft, a lone woman was tending a fire. More latticework screened most of the fire from view, allowing only the occasional glimpse of the flames, but now Xena was close enough to smell something truly enticing cooking over that fire. In the light from the fire, she could make out the woman's face, dark skinned and angular, as she leaned over the fire, and her hands, feeding the flames, and stirring the cookpot. The rest of the stranger was swathed in a cloak. Behind her, deeper into the crevice, Xena could see what looked like a reasonable amount of gear for one person afoot. She could see no sign of anyone else, and while the camp had clearly been set with some thought to defense, she sensed nothing that felt like a trap. 

As quietly as she had come, Xena melted back into the trees, towards the spot where she had left Gabrielle. If her instincts were true, Gabrielle would have a dry camp, and warm food tonight. 

When she reached the place where her companion waited, at first Xena could not see the younger woman. Peering into the darkness, she saw a massive, ever so slightly paler shape against the night that must be Argo. She clucked softly, and Argo answered with a faint whinny. Crossing to the horse, she could see that Gabrielle had led her under the tallest tree for some shelter, and now that she was so close, the sound of soft breathing told her that Gabrielle had fallen asleep sitting under that very tree. She was beset for a moment by the familiar twinge of guilt that came to her at times like these. Once more she had taken Gabrielle away from warmth, comfort and safety into dangerous and trying circumstances. At times like this, she could understand why the young woman had been so smitten by the vision of a simple, peaceful life that Perdicas had offered her. If only Gabrielle had never had to learn that visions don't always last in reality. 

She bent over and gently shook the sleeping bard. 

"Huh.." 

"Shhh... you fell asleep." 

"Damn. I meant to keep watch, and you were gone so long..." 

"I know. But someone's set up a camp ahead, and my gut tells me she's not an enemy. On your feet, you've gotten chilled enough sitting here. Let's go and see if she'll share with us." 

"Share...camp..." 

Xena hunched down beside Gabrielle, rubbing first her hands, and then her face, to get her awake again, warmed up at least a little, and ready to move. It wasn't cold enough for there to be any real danger, at least not in so brief a time, but the sooner Gabrielle reached someplace warm and dry, the better. 

"I hope so. It looks like she found the best spot to camp on this part of the hillside. There's room for three, and maybe even for Argo. Let's hope she's in a generous mood." Xena stood up, pulling Gabrielle to her feet as well. "Come on, shake yourself awake, it's not too far now." 

A few minutes later, they were on their way back towards the stranger's campsite, this time moving without any attempt at quiet. Once she felt they were within earshot of the woman at the fire, Xena called out, "Hallo to the fire and its maker. Can two travellers approach?" 

A voice, slightly accented in a manner Xena could not recognise, answered out of the dark. "You can come to where I can see you." 

Xena led Gabrielle and Argo to the edge of the clearing, then motioned them to stop, while she stepped forward. 

"You said two travellers," spoke the other woman from her place by the fire. 

"I'm a warrior. My companion is not." 

"Ah, I see. Leave your friend hid until you see if I'm inclined to shoot on sight. Well, I'm not. Come over here, the both of you, and if that was a horse I heard, bring it along too. It's too damn wet to stay out there and trade pedigrees." 

As the woman spoke, Xena led Gabrielle and Argo across the clearing towards the shelter. She peered intently at the weary young bard, supported almost entirely by Xena's strong right arm. "Let's get your friend under cover first. I think we'll need to do some re-organising if we want room for the horse as well. She looks like she can stand the rain a while longer, your friend I'm not so sure of." 

"Thank you", Xena said to the stranger as she helped Gabrielle past the fire and into the dry redoubt. As Xena helped Gabrielle sit down, her back against some soft branches and her feet turned to the fire, the other woman rummaged in her pack, pulling out a blanket. 

"Take off that wet cloak and wrap her in this for now. It'll keep her warm while we shift things around." As Xena stripped the waterlogged cloak from Gabrielle's shoulders, the stranger reached over and took it from her hands, offering in its stead the blanket. Hanging the cloak from the underside of the lattice roof, just near enough to the fire to dry without catching flame itself, she turned back to see Xena finish tucking the dry warm blanket around Gabrielle. 

Xena stood up and looked, first around her, and then up at the roof of woven boughs. From inside, she could see that they were lined with a strange, light, closely woven cloth. The other woman followed Xena's gaze. "It's a tribal secret of my people. I have more, but the cleft is too wide past this point for the branches to stretch across." 

"There's some saplings out there. Cut a few down, use 'em as tent poles." 

"Fine. I've a hand axe here..." She stooped to pick it up from where it had lain, half concealed beside the fire. 

"Let me. I'm already wet. What about more roofing?" 

"We can use the ones I made to hide the entrance - if you don't mind taking a watch in case someone else sees the fire." 

"No problem. I've done it before." 

The stranger looked slowly and deliberately at Xena, pointedly taking in the armour and weapon under her cloak. "I imagine you have." 

Xena half smiled, and taking the axe from her, headed out once more into the darkness. She paused to give Argo a reassuring slap, then went to harvest some saplings. 

Two would be more than enough to do the job, she thought, as she measured the height of the first sapling with her arms. High enough to give Argo or herself full headroom, she thought with some satisfaction. Quickly she bent to the task of chopping down the slender tree, hampered slightly by the wind that was rising, whipping the water heavy cloak around her arms each time she swung the small but razor sharp axe. Rather than trim the branches first, she dragged the tree back whole, and went back out into the rain. Within minutes she returned with a second tree, and bent down to trim them. 

She gathered the branches and carried them to the stranger where she sat by the fire weaving the strange fabric into the lattices. "Thought we might need to weave some more screening. And if not, these'll be more comfortable than the bare rock for sitting." Tossing down her bundle, she returned to the mouth of the cleft, searching for a spot where she could dig a shallow hole to place the first pole. 

"Just two poles?" 

"One here", Xena replied, as she found a spot where earth had filled in a small crack in the rock beneath, and hunkered down to dig out a hole with her dagger. "and one over there." she inclined her head to indicate the general direction." 

"I see. This one will support two panels, and give us enough room for three, and one more pole forms a sort of lean-to on the leeward side for your horse." 

"Right." Standing up, Xena planted the first pole in the ground, while the other woman carried out the first of the lattices, lifting it into place, resting partly on the rough rock wall of the crevice, partly on the other panels, and partly on the pole. The second one followed, and with a few cloth strips to bind them in place, the area under shelter was almost doubled. It was the work of only a few more minutes to set up the sheltered area for the horse, out of the wind and rain. 

Once Argo was settled, Xena stripped off her cloak and moved towards the fire. The stranger was stirring the cooking pot again, adding some bits of dried meat and tubers. Gabrielle was leaning forward, watching with anticipation, clearly revived by the warmth and rest. In her hands she cradled a tin mug, filled with something steaming. 

"Xena... come sit down... Rillian says she has enough to make rabbit stew for all of us. Doesn't it smell so good?" 

Xena tossed a packet down by the fire. "Some nutbread I had in my saddlebag... should go well with rabbit." 

The dark stranger looked up and grinned. "So it should. You, I am told by the most reliable of sources, are Xena, called The Warrior Princess. So pleased to make your acquaintance. I am Rillian, as you may have gathered, and your delightful companion has already introduced herself. Please, hang up that dripping cloak over there, then sit by my fire, and be welcome to my food... as soon as it's ready, that is. And in the meantime..." She dipped a ladle into a smaller pot nestled in the coals, one that had not been there earlier, and poured a dark liquid into the mate of the mug that Gabrielle held. "It's from a plant that grows in the mountains of my homeland... it will refresh and warm you. Here... " 

"Thanks, Rillian", Xena replied as she settled down onto some soft branches, welcoming the warmth of the fire on her own chilled arms and legs. She leaned forward and took the mug, relishing its warmth against her chilled fingers. She sniffed at the vapour rising from its mouth. It was pleasant, but with a bitter tang. 

Rillian held out a small pot. "Some people prefer it sweet. There's some honeycomb, if you like." 

The warrior took a cautious sip, and smiled. "I'll drink it like this." 

As the stranger quietly prepared a portion for herself, Gabrielle took another sip from her own mug, then raised her head, staring at her friend across the dancing flames. "And now Xena, I want to know why you dragged me out here. No more excuses. From the beginning."


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

### Chapter Two

"After all that sloshing around in the rain and the mud, you deserve the whole story," Xena agreed. "And you need to know what we might find when we get where we're going, so you can take precautions. I don't want you taking unnecessary risks. This could be very dangerous."

Gabrielle snorted. "As if that makes a difference anymore." She set her cup aside and pulled her knees up, clasping them tightly. "You just don't want to accept that I've learned how to take care of myself." 

"I never said that. But you're not a warrior. There are things even a trained warrior can't stand against. This could be one of them." 

"But you're going to try anyway, aren't you? What is it? Why are we out here? Where are we going?" 

Xena dropped her eyes, and looked down into the cup of steaming liquid in her hands, as if seeing images from the past deep within its depths. Almost as though she were in a dream, she started to speak. "It was my first year in command of my own warband. We'd had a good summer, gotten very rich, lost hardly any fighters, and we were on our way south to winter quarters. We were marching along the valley, not far north of Tirente when one of my scouts brought word of an ambush ahead. Two other warlords had joined forces against us. I guess they planned to take all the booty we'd won and split it between them. We were outnumbered, and the men were tired, so I decided to skip the fight. I led my men into these mountains, just a little north of here. 

"I guessed right when I figured they wouldn't follow us in, but I didn't figure on them camping out at the foot of every pass I could have taken back out. It was getting cold up here, colder than where they were. So I decided to cross the mountains, and travel down the seacoast, pass 'em by completely. 

"We'd just crossed over the summit, and were heading down, when we saw the thing." She looked up, holding both her listeners in her gaze. "It was - I don't know what it was - half lizard, half bat, half raptor, even, but bigger than any creature I'd ever seen before, and its wings were like giant sails. It had a buck deer in its talons, and it wasn't even flying hard." 

Gabrielle's eyes had grown wide. "A dragon..." she breathed. "You saw a dragon." 

"It wasn't like any dragon I'd ever heard of." Xena replied, shaking her head. "Ugly thing, with leathery skin, and a big bony head. No flaming breath, either." 

"A roc, maybe?" 

"I thought they had feathers. This didn't." She sat lost in thought for another moment, as if trying to find the words to describe the monster out of her past, and failing. "Anyway, whatever it was, it flew past us, but from that point on I had the scouts looking up at the sky as well as forward. Thing that can pick up a deer, can pick up a man just as easily." 

Rillian leaned forward. "You saw this...creature? With your own eyes?" 

"Oh yes," Xena's voice was hard, and bitter. "Twice more, in fact, as we marched down that mountain. Why? Do you know anything about it?" 

"I don't know. My people have... legends about creatures something like this, but the stories say they all died out many years ago." 

"Maybe they did, where you come from. But this thing was real. And the last time I saw it on that march down the mountain side, it had a girl in its claws. She was still alive when we saw her, and fighting. We could hear her screaming until after it flew out of sight." 

Gabrielle stared at Xena, horror in her eyes. "What did you do?" 

"It was flying too high for the archers or spearmen to hit it. I sent two scouts to try and follow it from the ground, but they lost it in among the canyons." 

The younger woman shuddered, and drew in a quavering breath. "What a horrible way to die." 

"It was worse than you think." 

"What do you mean?" 

"We found out when we got out of the pass, and stopped at the town down below. They'd staked the poor girl out for the creature to take. Some crazy idea that if they fed it, they could control their losses." 

"Like Andromeda, and Perseus... she was supposed to be a sacrifice to the dragon sent by Poseidon..." 

"Maybe, Gabrielle. Or maybe that story started here, with these people. They told us they'd done this sort of thing for generations. Every once in a while, one of these ugly flying things comes down out of the mountains. Whenever it does, all the towns along this part of the coast get together and pick a few young girls, and they feed them to this thing until finally it goes away." 

"They send their own daughters to... That's just as bad as anything I've ever heard of. How could anyone do such a thing? I mean, unless it was somebody like Dagnin, or..." Gabrielle fell silent, but Xena could guess the name that had frozen on her lips. 

Rillian broke the stillness. "My people say that whatever traits, good or evil, can be found written large in any one man, can be found in lesser measure but waiting to grow in many more..." 

Xena grimaced. "Tell me about it." 

"What happened then?" Gabrielle asked. 

"I told them, no more sacrifices. We put a goat out for bait. Like I'd thought, it didn't care one way or the other what it ate. All it cared about was easy prey." Her lips twisted bitterly on the words. "It came. We fought it. Two of my men died, four more were wounded so badly, they'd never fight again, but we killed it. They gave us all they had, they were so happy. I took what they gave us, and we marched away. They thought that we'd finished the job. After all, the stories only ever mentioned one beast. As far as they knew, it woke up every few years, ate a few girls, and went back to sleep. We all thought it was over for good." 

"But it wasn't, was it?" asked Rillian. 

"No". 

The word hung in the air for a moment, bringing a chill to all three women. Rillian was the first to break the silence. "Let me serve up this stew before it burns, and then you can tell us the rest." 

Gabrielle opened her mouth, as if to protest, or at least to urge Xena on with her tale, but then closed it abruptly, as she caught sight of Xena's whitened knuckles on the hand which still held her cooling drink. Telling this tale was clearly not an easy thing for Xena, and Rillian had the right of it, she needed a break to collect herself before going on. Gabrielle directed an angry retort to herself. Xena always seemed so strong, so self-contained, that sometimes she forgot to think about the woman inside the armour. No matter how cool Xena's outer demeanor, there was someone inside who felt all the pain and fear and horror at the things she'd seen that Gabrielle herself would have felt. It was easier, sometimes, to think of Xena as just a little more than human, than to realise that she was only human, and fought on anyway. 

"Great idea, Rillian. I'm starving, and that stew smells like ambrosia... well, not really, since I've smelled ambrosia, of course, so I should say it smells like I would imagine ambrosia would smell if I hadn't actually smelled it. Here, I'll cut up the nutbread." 

Rillian tossed the packet to Gabrielle, then turned around and rooted through her pack for a moment, pulling out several plates. As she scooped generous portions of the thick stew onto the dishes, one for each of them, Xena roused herself from the images of the past, and added a few of the larger, partly dried branches to the fire. Gabrielle, meanwhile, had opened up the packet of nutbread, and divided it into three thick slabs. For a few minutes, the only sounds heard over the wind and rain were of spoons clinking against plates, and lips and tongues smacking over the savoury meal. 

Her hunger somewhat sated, Gabrielle stared down at her plate. "I guess I can't blame the beast. From the sounds of it, it would look at us like we look at this rabbit." She looked at Rillian and smiled. "And a very tasty rabbit it is, too." 

Xena nodded. "I'm pretty good with herbs, but there's a few flavours in here I don't know at all. Delicious." 

"I carry some herbs that are common where I come from. It makes things more familiar when I'm on the road." 

"Where are you from, Rillian?" asked Gabrielle. 

"A long ways away. I don't think you'd have heard of it." 

Xena looked up from her meal. "A good friend of mine was just as dark as you are. He told me once his family was originally from Kush, somewhere to the south of Aegypt." 

"I've been in Kush. But I come from further away than that. As far as I know, none of my people have ever journeyed here before." 

"What on earth made you travel so far, then?" asked Gabrielle, her mouth half-full of nutbread. 

"It's a tradition among my people. You see, I want to become a story teller." 

"Like a bard?" Rillian nodded at Gabrielle's question. "Me too. I'm sort of doing it now, telling stories at festivals, and sometimes in inns when we actually have the chance to stay in one." She shot a quick smile at Xena, who responded with a grin. 

"In my homeland, it's an honoured calling, but it takes a long time to become one. We have a saying, she who would speak, must first know how to listen..." 

Xena sputtered over her drink, clapping her hand to her mouth to stop the full throated laugh that threatened to erupt. Gabrielle glared at her. "Xena, that was not funny. And I do know how to listen." 

"I know, Gabrielle. It just... struck me funny, that's all. I'm sorry." 

"I could still go back to the Academy, you know." 

"I know, Gabrielle. I didn't mean to laugh at you. And I don't want you to leave, all right?" 

The younger woman sent one last look of annoyance at Xena, and then turned back to Rillian, while Xena watched, lips twitching, still swallowing her laughter. "I still don't understand, what does becoming a bard have to do with you being here?" 

"We're supposed to travel, learn about other people, their languages, customs, histories, listen to the tales of their heroes... then, once we have listened enough, we can go home, and start telling our friends and families what we've heard." 

"All your bards do that?" 

"Yes. In fact, most other people, once they learn more about us, just call us the listeners. It's what we're known for." She smiled and picked up her empty plate. "And, as a listener who wants to hear the end of Xena's story, I'll just collect those dishes, pour you both another cup of chi-ka, and then perhaps we can hear the rest of the tale..." She glanced at Xena. "That is, if you're ready to go on." 

Xena nodded, handing her plate to Gabrielle, who passed both their plates across to Rillian as she prompted her friend to continue. "You thought you'd killed the flying monster once and for all, but you hadn't, right? It survived somehow?" 

"Something like that. Years passed, I forgot all about it. One day, I was in the middle of a war..., and a messenger came. It was from the same town. The creature was back. They wanted my help again." 

"What did you do?" 

"Nothing." 

"What?" Gabrielle's face was a mask of shock and disbelief. 

Xena shook her head slowly. "Gabrielle, a lot of time had gone by. A lot of changes in me. I wasn't as... willing to help as I was when I first became a warlord. The town was poor, I'd already taken all they owned of any worth the last time, and I was in the middle of a war. I had a reputation to uphold. I couldn't walk off the battlefield like that, just to go exterminate something that should have stayed dead. Or at least, that's how I thought then." 

"So you let the townspeople go back to killing their daughters." 

"Gabrielle, you know what I was. I've done many things I regret. This is one of them." 

"I thought you never killed women or children." 

"The way I saw it then, it wasn't me who killed those girls, it was their parents." 

"You could have stopped it." 

"Yes, I could have. Maybe. It's my fault for not trying." There was a long, tense silence, as Xena and Gabrielle stared unflinchingly at each other. 

"I'm sorry, Xena," Gabrielle whispered at last. "I know you'd never do anything like that now." 

A short, muffled cough from Rillian startled them both. "Do you know what happened after that?" 

Xena tore her eyes away from Gabrielle's, and turned toward Rillian. "We did go, later on. As usual, the beast had only been seen for a few months, and then it disappeared again. I led some search parties up into the mountains, but we didn't see any sign of it. We left." 

"And now?" 

"It started to bother me, over the years. Why the thing only shows up for a few months, and disappears for years in between. Why it appeared again after we killed it. I realised the people around here were wrong. It wasn't just one beast, but it was one beast at a time." 

"What do you mean?" 

"I think it's very small for most of its life. Probably flies around here eating rabbits. Nobody ever sees it. Or if they do, they never think it could be the same creature. Then, when it's ready, it eats everything in sight, grows very large, and lays its eggs. Then it dies. I guess the babies fight so only one survives, or maybe it only has one. That's why it came back, or so they thought. It had already spawned when we killed it. We didn't think. We didn't track it to its lair, we just killed it when it came for the goat. The egg survived." 

Rillian nodded. "And you think it hatched, and when it was ready to reproduce, that's when it appeared again... the time you didn't go." 

"Yeah. And so it spawned again." 

A look of horror covered Gabrielle's face. "That's what you heard in the inn. They're sacrificing their children again!" 

Xena shook her head quickly. "Not yet. At least, I hope not. I thought it might be getting close to the time again, so I've been listening for little things around these mountains. Less small game than there should be. Too many goats and sheep going missing. That sort of thing. That's what I heard in the inn. Some huntsmen complaining that suddenly there's no game out here." 

"And your plan?" asked Rillian. 

Xena shrugged. "Get there before anyone gets hurt. Track the thing to its lair, and destroy the eggs first. Then kill it if I can, or at least keep the townsfolk from feeding any more girls to it if I can't. If I'm right, it only flies so far, and eats so much, just before it breeds and dies. We only need a little time." Abruptly, Xena stood up, and reached for her cloak, now dried by the heat of the fire. "I'm going for a walk. I won't be long. While I'm gone, Rillian, you decide which watch you want to take." She turned and walked out into the rain. 

Both women looked after her for a moment. Then Gabrielle turned to Rillian. "Don't take offense. She's a very...complicated person. She just needs time to be by herself sometimes." 

"She's certainly a very interesting person. How long have you known her?" 

Gabrielle started to answer, but instead started to shake her head in astonishment. "You know, it feels like we've been together forever, but it's been less than two years. She saved my life, you know... that's how we met. There was this warlord, and he captured all the women from my village to be sold as slaves. Xena fought them all, and freed us, and somehow, I just knew that I'd been waiting for her... well, maybe not her, but someone just like her..." 

"So you went with her. You're lovers?" 

"Oh no. That is, it's not like that with us. She... I don't think she has any room for something like that, not now. Maybe not ever." A brief hint of some emotion flickered across Gabrielle's face, but she dismissed it quickly. "But she really needs a friend. And sometimes I think she needs someone to remind her of what went wrong, back when she turned into the kind of person she fights against now. I think I do that for her. And besides, every warrior needs a bard to follow them around, and write all about their heroic deeds, right?" 

"Now that is a bardic paradise. A whole lifetime of great material, all your own. Have you written anything about her yet?" 

"Some things, sure. How she saved Poteidia - that's my village -and how she stopped the war between the Amazons and the Centaurs, and..." 

"You'll have to tell me all your stories, before I leave." 

"Before you leave? From the sounds of it, we'll be leaving in the morning." 

"I think I'll go along with you for now. Every bard in training needs to take advantage of new material when it lands in her lap, right?" 

"I heard that," came a voice out of the darkness, as Xena rejoined them. "It'll be dangerous." 

"I gathered that. I'll take my chances." 

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Xena hung up her cloak again, and squatted down beside the fire. "So, who takes first watch?" 

"I will", said Rillian. "I spent my day catching rabbits, not a difficult task. Go to sleep, I'll wake you when I'm tired." 

Xena stood up again, and grabbed the bedrolls from the beside the fire. "You coming to sleep now, Gabrielle?" 

"I'm still feeling kind of buzzy, actually. You go, I want to doze here by the fire a while." 

"Right. I'll set out your blankets. Til morning, then." Xena walked back into the crevice, and settled herself down in the shadows. As she laid out the blankets for herself and Gabrielle, and removed her leathers and her armour, she could hear the two women by the fire, talking about being bards: how to choose the right stories to tell, finding a point of view, learning what to tell and what to leave out. She smiled. There was a familiar tone to their conversation, the tone of two professionals sharing the secrets of the trade. Not unlike the way she used to talk with other warriors, on quiet nights around a campfire, learning her the intricacies of her craft. Except, of course, that all her talk then had been of how to wound, or to conquer, or to kill, and they were talking of how to make a memory live forever. 

Crawling into her bedroll, she thought about the fates, who seemed to have brought another kindred spirit to Gabrielle. One the one hand, she was glad that Gabrielle would have someone to talk to about these kinds of things, at least for a while. She didn't always appreciate Gabrielle's bardic inclinations. And all the gods in Olympus help her, but she could not listen to that damned song about Perdicas one more time. She knew that Gabrielle had to grieve, but it was beyond human endurance for her to sit and listen to the virtues of Perdicas when all she wanted to do was... no, down that train of thought lay madness, and she was not going to lose control. She had endured Gabrielle's wedding, she could endure anything for Gabrielle, except watching her leave again. And that was what lay in the other hand she did not care to think about. Would Gabrielle leave her again, for this Rillian? The worst of it was, she liked Rillian herself. Resolutely, she banished all thoughts of the dark complected stranger from her mind, and, breathing deeply and slowly to summon the sleep she needed, fixed her mind's eye firmly on a sweet, gently rounded, smiling face, framed with bangs and flowing tresses of strawberry blonde.


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

### Chapter Three

Xena was awake and alert seconds before the hand touched her shoulder. Catlike, she twisted in her bedroll to see Rillian's shadowed face and form above her. Beyond the figure of her host, she could see Gabrielle, wrapped tightly in her own blankets, seemingly sound asleep.

"It's your watch," whispered Rillian. "I'll wait by the fire til you're up and dressed." She retreated towards the wide mouth of the cave, as Xena quietly rose and reached for her leathers. It was only the work of a few minutes to pull on her armour. As she crept quietly past the sleeping Gabrielle, she paused. The slow, rhythmic rise and fall of her breast as she slept told Xena that Gabrielle was deeply asleep, the softness in her face and the gentle curve of her lips, that she was sleeping well. Xena smiled. It was a relief to see her slumbering so peacefully. Gabrielle, like Xena herself, had troubled dreams after the return of Callisto and the nightmare she had plunged them into. 

Still smiling, Xena walked out toward the fire. Rillian was bent over a pot on the fire. "I made another pot of chi-ka, stronger this time. If you don't want any, just set it aside, It'll reheat well in the morning." 

"A little later, perhaps." She looked out into the blackness of the mid night sky. "Rain's stopped." 

"It blew over a couple hours ago. Looks like better weather for travelling." 

"Couldn't be worse." She looked back at the other woman. "Better get some sleep. I'll wake you both at sunrise." 

Rillian nodded and headed towards her own blankets, sliding into them with a quick motion and curling up at once. After a quick check on Argo, Xena visited the neat trench Rillian had dug beyond the sheltering boulders, and then, in much greater comfort, went back to the fire and helped herself to a drink. By now fully alert, she leaned back against the rock face and stared out into the dark, absently sipping from the mug as she did so. 

The warrior in her urged her to think about plans, and strategies, and tactics in preparation for the creature from her past which she feared they would all soon face. But a voice from far deeper within was telling her that more important than these things, which were after all almost instinct to her now, she needed to think about what had been happening to her, to Gabrielle, to them both, in recent months. 

Recent months, indeed. It was so hard to realise that less than two years ago she had been plotting the death of Hercules, to cement her reputation as the greatest warlord of all time. At times it was almost impossible to even remember how that woman had thought, or felt. So much had changed since then. If Hercules had helped set her on this road to redemption she struggled to walk every day, Gabrielle had kept her on it, kept her from falling back into the darkness. Oh, the anger was still there, and the lust for vengeance that first started her down the path to Tartarus' gates. Perhaps they would always be there. But she could control them now, use them, subjugate them to good ends. She would not let them take her over again. 

Gabrielle was the key to so much of what had happened to her. It was Gabrielle's faith and trust, and basic goodness that had pulled her back from the abyss whenever it beckoned her. Only once had that goodness failed them, when Gabrielle herself had sent her out after the fleeing Callisto, crying for vengeance. Xena wondered, if it had been Gabrielle beside that quicksand, what would she have done? She had spared Callisto once before that day, when she walked into her camp and found her sleeping. Would she have spared her again? 

Spared her as she, Xena, had not. She had stood there, torn between the need to avenge the heartwound dealt to Gabrielle, and the small still voice that told her it was one thing to kill cleanly in battle, and another, far different thing, to stand by and let your enemy die a lingering death. But she had done just that. She had sat there, and watched Callisto drown in the sand, knowing as she did that what she did was wrong. 

Well, at least that was all behind her now. She had exorcised that ghost. What she could not put behind her was the wrenching pain she had carried in her heart since that night when, in the midst of flames and ringing steel and war cries, Gabrielle had flung at her the fiercest blow she had ever been dealt in all her years of battle. The night when Gabrielle had turned from her to Perdicas, crying out that her answer to his plaint was "Yes". 

As the familiar ache descended on her again, she stood, and stepped out into the night, away from the fire. She collected a few of the branches that lay drying under the edge of the makeshift roof, and carried them back to build up the fire. But her thoughts would not be disciplined. 

When had she fallen in love with Gabrielle? At first, the young runaway had seemed little more than a nuisance, one she accepted because it seemed right, somehow, that someone whose life she had changed for good, and not for ill, should walk beside her, reminding her of what she strove to do with the remainder of her life. Someone who could remind her of what might have been for her, had Cortise and Caesar and all the other reasons to kill not come between the girl that was and the woman she had become. But Gabrielle had been, was, so much more than that. So quickly she had become companion, and then friend, and then comrade-in-arms, the like of which she had never known before. And somehow she had also become the examiner of her conscience, and now the keeper of her heart as well. 

She knew to the second when she had realised it, that terrible instant in the Temple of Aesclepius when she thought that she had lost her forever. But of the moment when friendship first had blossomed into love, she had not the slightest recollection, so slowly and quietly had it come upon her. 

And once she knew her feelings, she had been at such a loss over what to do about it. It surprised her, for she'd never been the hesitant lover before, with man or woman. But with Gabrielle, everything was different. She had been afraid that if she pressed her suit too soon, she might frighten one so innocent. So she had waited, and watched, and tried to guess from the younger woman's words and actions whether it seemed that Gabrielle might indeed return her affections in some fashion. Sometimes she saw signs that seemed to speak with a thousand voices that yes, Gabrielle cared for her, returned her growing love, and when that happened her heart sang with a fierce and jubilant rhythm. But then Gabrielle would shift and change like quicksilver, and seem to be on the verge of handing her heart to another, and the blood would freeze in her veins. 

And then she had turned away and given that precious heart to Perdicas. And Xena had found that some fragile part of her she had scarcely known existed had turned to ice. She did not think that she would ever be warm again. 

With a bitter oath, she left her place of comfort by the fire once more and walked out to gauge the time of night. A soft, anxious whicker from Argo diverted her, and she headed over to soothe her. "It's all right, Argo," she whispered. "I'll be fine." She stroked the horse's neck, and then fumbled in the saddlebag she'd left there for a crumb of the honey and oatcake treats that Argo loved. "There you are girl." The horse took it eagerly from her fingers. "It's getting drier out there now. Do you want to go get yourself some grass, girl? Easy now, I'll take you down off this rocky spot, and you can graze down in that little hollow til it's time for us to head out." She loosed the long rein she'd tied Argo on earlier, and led Argo toward the small patch of pasture below the rocky outcropping on which was built the camp. Within minutes the sturdy horse was nosing out the rain-dampened and succulent grasses that would serve as her morning meal, while Xena kept her eye on the shelter where Gabrielle and Rillian slept from her perch on a fallen tree trunk. 

Such a foolish idea, that she would be gifted with such love as Gabrielle had to give. She'd done nothing to deserve it. She might spent the rest of her life redeeming herself, and still not have done enough to deserve it. She should be content that she had Gabrielle for a friend, and a companion, and a moral compass on her path. 

Xena sat, listening to her horse graze contentedly, and watching the approaches to the shelter until the first glimmerings of dawn began to show in the eastern sky. As the darkness slowly turned to grey, she headed back up to the cleft to begin breakfast preparations before the others woke. The fire had burned down to embers, but the last of the dried branches sufficed to build it again. Once the fire was burning well, she added some water to the pot of cool chi-ka Rillian had left out the night before, and taking some meal and honey from her saddlebag, mixed a batch of sweetcakes and laid them on a flat stone set at the edge of the fire to cook. Then she went back into the rear of the cleft to wake Gabrielle and Rillian. 

Rillian woke at the sound of her approach. The woman stretched like a cat, and then rose and wandered out beyond the cave to greet the morning. Xena crouched beside Gabrielle, who lay scrunched up in her blankets like a child, and shook her lightly. "Morning, Gabrielle." 

A soft, unconscious murmur was the only response, as Gabrielle remained deep in repose. It was another of the differences between them, one that underscored the distance between warrior and bard. Xena could sleep anywhere, at any time, though she preferred early rising, and would wake to full alertness at the slightest unexpected sound. Gabrielle had a marked preference for the late hours of the evening, and sometimes needed a sound shaking to awaken. Xena shook her shoulder again. 

"Uhm," she muttered, as, still asleep, she turned in her blankets towards the hand that had touched her, like a flower unfolding toward the sun. The open innocence in her face, the languor of her barely conscious movements, filled Xena with such fierce longing that it was all she could to keep herself from sweeping her beloved into her arms and showering her with kisses. She drove down her desire. 

"Gabrielle. Time to wake up." Xena spoke, and shook her companion a little more strongly. "Gabrielle. Breakfast." 

"Breakfast?" Her eyes opened. "Xena, did you say breakfast?" 

"Sweetcakes and more of Rillian's chi-ka drink." 

"Oh good." Gabrielle sat up, and squinted at the morning light which had begun to shine into the shelter. "It's stopped raining?" 

"Yeah. Sun's almost up, good day for travel." Xena rose to her full height again and walked back to the fire, ignoring the agonising ache that clutched at her heart. 

Rillian had taken over the breakfast duties, and handed Xena a mug as she came up beside her. Xena took a long draught from the mug. "This stuff grows on you," she remarked, smiling wryly. 

"I'll miss it when my supplies finally run out," she agreed. "It won't grow around here." 

"Pity." Xena set down the mug. "You and Gabrielle start breakfast. I want to get a look at where we are. I'll be back." Stepping out into the growing sunlight, she looked down the hill first, to assure herself that Argo was in not trouble, and then turned around to look at the rock formation that had given them shelter through the night. Once it might have been one huge and solid mass of stone, jutting out from the rocky ground beneath her. Age, or some more violent action, had shaken it into great pieces, lying tumbled up against each other in a pile. Eyeing the quickest path of ascent, she clambered up to the highest point, and looked around her. 

The night before, they had climbed well out of the valley and into the foothills, almost completely above the forest, which fell away beneath her to the east like a thick green rug. Far off she saw faint tendrils of smoke rising from the chimneys of Tirente. Stretching into the distance to both north and south, were rugged hills, spotted with rock formations like the one on which she now stood, and lightly covered with hardy scrub trees and bushes. Turning around she saw the mountains rise before her, their sheer stone faces shining in the morning sun. Almost due west of where they stood, the imposing barrier of rock was broken by a pass that led across the highlands toward the sea. She allowed herself a moment of pride in her tracking ability, that even in the rain and dark she had held so near to the direction she remembered. She looked closely at what her present vantage revealed of the land between their position and the pass, and then scrambled down the rockface, and walked toward the camp. 

She could hear Gabrielle's voice as she rounded the rocks and reached the mouth of the crevice"...and since he's blind, it doesn't even help him if others do write down what he's composed, but if you go south, you must hear his tale of the fall of Troy. It's maybe the best thing I've ever heard." 

"I'll make a point of it," Rillian responded. 

Xena sat crosslegged beside the fire in one fluid movement, and swiped one of the sweetcakes from the stone griddle she had improvised. "How he can write the definitive story of Troy? He wasn't even there." 

"Sometimes a story can be true in essence even if the details are off. And besides, he talked to a lot of the people involved about it." Gabrielle handed Xena her mug, refilled. 

"Didn't talk to me." She took a sip. 

"You don't have to talk to everyone. A poem doesn't have to tell all the truths, only some of them. I could write your version of what happened at Troy, and it would compliment his poems, not contradict them." 

Xena shrugged. "The pass we want is due west from here. We can make the mouth of it before nightfall if we get started soon. I remember a cave we can use for a campsite." She reached for the last of the cakes. 

"Well, we'd better get moving, then," Rillian smiled, standing and starting to dismantle the screens that had served as shelter during the night, stripping the cloths from the roof panels. 

"You're set on coming with us?" 

"As long as no one minds, yes. I like adventures." 

"We'll see." 

While Rillian packed her gear, and Gabrielle did the same for her own and Xena's, Xena saddled Argo, and then fastened not only their own bedrolls and her saddlebags, but Rillian's large pack as well on Argo's back. Gabrielle as always carried her leather satchel slung from her shoulder, and Rillian carried a small pack strapped around her waist. While Rillian made a last quick survey of the campsite to ensure nothing had been left unpacked, Xena scattered and quenched the embers of their fire. Then she took Argo's lead and headed back towards the rough trail that would take them straight to the pass. 

Rillian and Gabrielle followed, Gabrielle with her staff in hand. Fragments of conversation floated up to her, and occasional fits of laughter. They seemed to be having some manner of storytelling contest with each other, from what Xena could tell, for at least half of what Gabrielle was saying seemed familiar. Then Xena cringed. In a clear, firm voice from behind her came that unmistakeable refrain "I sing of Perdicas, the boy I knew, the man I loved..." 

Xena turned her head to glance over her shoulder, saying sharply, "I'm going to ride on ahead for a while. Keep your eyes peeled for any trouble." Without another word, she leapt into the saddle and urged Argo ahead. 

Gabrielle and Rillian stood for a moment, then turned to each other. "What was that about?" asked Rillian. 

"Like I said, Xena's a pretty complex person." Gabrielle began walking again, Rillian keeping step. 

"I almost had the feeling that she didn't want to hear the song you were about to sing." 

"Well, I can understand that. It gets into things that were very painful for both of us. I guess sometimes she doesn't want to be reminded about it. But this song is something that I just have to work on, until I get it just right." 

"Well, then sing it for me." 

Gabrielle began again, telling the story of Perdicas, his upbringing and the times they had shared as children, of his exploits in war, and his determination to give up the sword and find peace in the arms of his beloved childhood sweetheart. She sang of his death at the hands of Callisto, and of the vengeance taken on Callisto for that death, and how the cycle of violence had bred yet more suffering until the gods themselves had finally set things right again. After she finished, Gabrielle waited impatiently for any comment from her audience. But Rillian remained quiet. Finally, Gabrielle could no longer endure the silence. "You don't like it." 

"Oh no, that's not it at all." Rillian paused for a moment, then continued thoughtfully. "It's a very powerful song, and you use every element in it effectively. It's a fine memorial, and a good teaching song, as well. I just don't understand." 

"What don't you understand?" 

"Why did you marry him when even I can tell after just one day that Xena's the one you love?" 

Gabrielle stopped in her tracks. "What...I don't know what you mean." 

"Well, you do love her, don't you?" 

"What makes you... I mean, well... yes, but... I told you before, I don't think she needs or even wants anyone that way, not now, at least." 

"What makes you think that?" 

"She's got so much happening inside of her to deal with, I don't think there's anything left over to deal with...love. She has all these other things to take care of. Things like this trip we're on, to try and make up for things in the past, for first making a mistake, and then ignoring it when she had the chance to fix it. I don't know when she'll have room in her life for a lover." Gabrielle turned away from the other woman, and began to walk. 

Rillian caught up to her in a few quick steps. "And?" 

"And what?" 

"And I can tell an incomplete thought when I hear it." 

"You don't play fair, do you?" 

"Storytelling is about emotional truth. You can't create it for others if you can't face it yourself." 

"All right. I don't know when Xena will have room in her life for a lover - if she ever does. And even if she does, I'm not sure that I'd be her choice for that lover. All the others that I know of have been warriors, and while I can take care of myself, I'm no warrior. Maybe we're too different, at least for her." 

"And so you married someone else you didn't love because the one you do love doesn't seem interested?" 

"It was a lot more complicated than that. He loved me. He needed me. I thought it was the best thing for all three of us. But it turned out to be a very bad decision, and not just because it got an innocent man, a friend, killed. But it taught me a few things. I won't leave her again, at least not as long as she wants me around. Just being her friend is enough. It's more than being married to anyone else." 

"You know, Gabrielle, I think you may be a very complex person too. And both of you may end up regretting it." Rillian paused for a moment as they walked along, picking their footing carefully amidst broken rock and lingering patches of damp earth. "Now, since we're telling sad tales, let me tell you the story of Deirdre of the Sorrows. I heard this tale far away north of here, in the Tin Isles, as they are known to the sailors that trade there." 

They walked alone for the rest of the afternoon, though from time to time Gabrielle pointed out clear signs that Xena had been along the trail before them, and left markers to tell them they were still on the path. Though with the twin mountains framing the pass towering over them to guide their steps, it would be difficult to have wandered far from the set direction. As the day wore on, the land grew rockier and more rugged, and the path they followed steeper, until at last they stood in early evening shadow upon the knees of the mountain range, looking up into the pass that led between the two giants. 

A pile of stones to the left of the path told Gabrielle the direction Xena had taken in setting up camp. "This way." 

Rillian peered along the cliff. "There, partly hidden behind those scrub trees. There's the cave." 

As they drew nearer, Xena appeared in the mouth of the cave, and walked towards them, grinning and holding a brace of plump, freshly plucked birds in her free hand. "Dinner, anyone?" 

Gabrielle nodded. "I could eat a mountain goat, but that'll do." 

"There's a little spring just on the other side of that rock spur. You can wash up, if you want. I've had my swim, so I'll cook tonight." 

It was almost dark when the two women returned, dripping wet, to the cave. There they were welcomed with warm blankets and the savoury smell of roasting fowl. "Dinner's almost ready", Xena announced. 

Rillian and Gabrielle looked around. The cave was large and dry, consisting of a large chamber with a chimney hole for smoke in the ceiling, and several smaller alcoves. There was room to spare for all and Argo too. A large fire burned off to one side of the main chamber, in the centre of a circle of low, hummock-shaped stones. In the alcove nearest the fire, Xena had set the bedrolls and blankets out to air. The large waterskin that normally hung from her saddle was full and set against the cavern wall where all could help themselves to water, firewood for the night had been gathered, and not only roast fowl but a selection of wild tubers had been harvested and roasted along with the birds. Gladly they joined Xena by the fire, and eagerly snatched at the disjointed pieces of meat and the roasted vegetables, quickly assuaging the hunger of a long day's march over hard terrain. 

"You've been busy," Rillian remarked. 

"You two were having such a pleasant chat, and Argo wanted a good run. And once I found this place, it seemed pointless to go back just to tell you it was here." 

"This is almost as nice as an inn," Gabrielle said, between mouthfuls. 

Xena smiled. "Well, we won't find much in the way of shelter up in the pass, so we may as well enjoy ourselves as best we can tonight." 

After dinner, the discussion turned to further considerations of what they might find once they began the trek across the mountains. "I don't know how far the beast might range," Xena told them. I know we first saw it a day and a half's march into the pass. So from here on, we stick together. And keep watch overhead." 

"Do you think it's full size yet?" asked Rillian. 

"Don't know. But I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." She stood up. "The cave's well hidden from the outside, and there's no animal sign in here. I think we can do without posting watch tonight." 

"Makes sense," said Gabrielle. "Sleep well now, because we'll have to be on our guard from here on, right?" 

"Right. I'm taking Argo to the spring for a drink. You two can clean up." She slung the spare waterskin over her shoulder and led the horse out of the cave. 

When she returned, they were scouring the dishes with sand from the cavern floor, and arguing the proper meter for love poetry. Xena settled Argo for the night in her own section of the cave, left some grasses on the ground, emptied one waterskin into a depression in the stone, and then went to her bedroll. As she stripped for sleep, she could hear Gabrielle and Rillian talking softly, but she shut out the sounds and wrapped her blankets around her. To her relief, just as she fell asleep, the familiar sounds of Gabrielle preparing for bed not far from her came to her ears, and soon afterward, the cavern was quiet save for the sounds of horse and women breathing.


	4. Chapter 4

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

### Chapter Four

When Xena awoke, Rillian was already up, and bent over the fire, stirring pots that smelled of nut-grain porridge and hot chi-ka. Gabrielle, alerted to the arrival of dawn by the sounds of the others and the smell of food, rose not long after. They breakfasted quickly and then prepared for another long march.

It was hard going in the pass that day. The trail was uneven, and treacherous. It wound slowly over the north shoulder of the mountain, with many turns and switchbacks as it followed the most accessible contours. Rockfalls had obscured the path in some places, and they had to pick their way either across or around loose boulders and debris. At times the ground fell away sharply on their right, and they had to hug the southern rockface in order to pass. And as they climbed, it grew colder. 

Around midday, exhausted and chilled, they found a place where the trail widened, and led in twisted fashion between two higher ridges. Sheltered from the winds that had begun to whip around them in the more open sections of the pass, they stopped to rest in a small blind canyon off the trail. 

Xena set Argo loose to graze what meagre growth of grasses there was in the canyon, then joined the others in collecting deadwood for a fire. Once the fire was crackling merrily away, Rillian set water to boil for chi-ka, and pulled out of her pack some cheese, dried meat strips and flatbread, and a handful of dried fruits as well. "Lunch is ready," she announced, as Gabrielle came over to sit by the fire, having pulled her winter clothes and cloak out of Xena's saddlebags. 

"This is great. Dried rabbit, and what kind of cheese is this? Doesn't smell like feta." Gabrielle stuffed one of the round breads with as much as it would hold and raised it to her mouth. 

"It's all I have left. It's made with cow's milk, instead of goats or sheep." 

"Really? It's delicious." 

Meanwhile, Xena, who had taken the opportunity to strap on her winter leathers to protect her arms and legs from the biting wind, came up behind them. Sitting down by the fire, she poured herself a cup and assembled a packet of meat, cheese and bread. "It's colder than I remembered," she commented, biting deeply into her food. 

"It was early fall when you crossed these mountains before, wasn't it?" Gabrielle asked, chewing on a mouthful of dried dates and apples. 

"Yeah. It is a little later in the year, this time." 

"At least there's no sign of snow, even on the higher peaks," added Rillian. "I've crossed mountains where there is always snow, even in the height of summer." 

"Where was that?" 

"The worst was in a place they call the Roof of the World, many months travel east of here. I have hundreds of stories about that journey alone." 

Gabrielle's eyes brightened. "Really? What was it like. Was it really the Roof of the World? I thought that was in the west, where Atlas guards the gates to the Outer Sea." 

Xena looked pointedly at the sky as Rillian leaned forward as if to speak. "It's getting on. We should be moving." 

"You're worried we won't make it to the coast in time, aren't you?" Gabrielle asked quietly. 

"Don't ask silly questions, Gabrielle," Xena replied, taking a deep swallow of her drink to finish it off. "You'd better get dressed." 

While Xena packed her saddlebags once more, and arranged the burden carefully on Argo's back, Gabrielle pulled on her leggings and a heavy tunic. "Rillian, don't you need any warmer clothes?" 

"Not really. These leather trousers I picked up in Scythia are warm and comfortable, and so is the tunic. I've got my cloak if it gets any colder, but for now I'm fine." She looked over her shoulder, to where Xena stood, Argo at her side, waiting. "We'd better get moving." She carefully scattered the remains of the fire while Gabrielle finished gathering her gear, and they walked over to join Xena. 

The afternoon was little different than the morning had been, safe that the trail wound steadily higher on the mountain flank. Now that they were on the move, Xena seemed more relaxed, and listened without interruption to Rillian's tales of hardships and strange things seen and heard on the path she said was called the Silk Road. It certainly seemed to make the time pass more quickly, and she could see how Gabrielle lapped up the exotic stories Rillian had to tell. In all honesty, she was enjoying them herself. She'd travelled enough herself to recognise in these tales things she'd heard before from other travellers met in far off places, and she'd always known that knowledge was a thing to be sought after. One never knew when something learned in the idlest of conversations could be used to one's advantage. 

Nightfall found them almost halfway to the summit, and settled in reasonable comfort in a small hollow, not quite a cave, but sheltered from the sky be an overhang of rock, and large enough for all, as long as they kept close. Considering the cold, this was hardly something anyone was inclined to complain about. There was room for a small fire, upon which bubbled a stew of several small animals Xena had spotted and felled along the way, and with the paucity of grasses this high on the mountain, Xena had supplemented Argo's diet with a few handfuls of grain. Fed and wrapped as best as they could manage against the cold, all four huddled together. At Xena's urging, Argo settled down on one side of the hollow, and then the three women leaned against her, taking warmth from her bulk. Rillian tucked herself into the hollow first, then Gabrielle, and Xena took the outside place, nearest the trail, where she could hear and answer any threat in the night. The other two women seemed to fall into slumber quickly, worn out as they were from the long climb. Xena lay awake for a while, drinking in the warmth of Gabrielle's body pressed close to hers. At last she forced herself to turn away, and sank into sleep herself. In the morning, she would remember the feeling of Gabrielle's arm slide across her body to wrap tightly around her waist in the night as she slept, and wonder if it had been only a dream. 

The second day in the pass was much like the first, fraught with the same dangers from uncertain footing, the remains of previous rockslides, and the threat of new rockfall either above or beneath them. Fortunately, the treacherous sections of the trail were interspersed with stretches where they could relax as the path became more easily traversed. As evening began to close around them, they found a small cave to shelter in, just below the summit, and used the firewood collected throughout the day to start a fire and cook their dinner. Though they had more room in the little cave, still the bitter cold resulted in the same close quarters as the night before. 

Early morning saw them on the trail once more. They reached the crest of the pass after about an hour's climbing, and stood amazed for a moment as they looked down on the twists and turns of the trail as it led down the side of the great mountain, to the point where the rock fell sharply away to a thin strip of land lying between the cliffs and the sea. Redoubling caution, both in their footing, and in their careful watch on the sky, they started their descent. 

It was, if anything, even more difficult coming down out of the high defile than it had been climbing up into it. Loose pebbles and stones, and weathered rock that needed only a little too much weight on the wrong fracture line to crumble beneath them, continued to plague their steps. And the downward slope made balance harder to maintain. Nonetheless, they maintained a steady pace, with Xena and Argo, as ever, in the lead, and Gabrielle and Rillian following with care. 

To take their minds off the effort of navigating the sloping trail, Gabrielle and Rillian began resumed their good-natured bardic contest. First one would tell a story, then the other would critique it, demanding reasons for each choice of plot element or characterisation, analysing the use of imagery, the style and structure of each piece. Xena listened quietly, in growing appreciation of the work, skill and ability involved in what she had always thought of simply as Gabrielle's penchant for telling stories. 

By mid afternoon, each of them had taken several turns at being the storyteller. The duel had gone on unabated during a midday rest period, and now Gabrielle was in the middle of a spirited rendition of her tale of the War between the Amazons and the Centaurs, when Xena thought she heard a frenzied bleating in the distance, coming from ahead of them, and above them. 

"Quiet!" She hissed, eyeing the skies above them, and then the terrain around them. 

The trail had widened since the early morning, and now twisted slowly downwards in a long series of switchbacks that followed the ridges of the mountain's ragged slope. At this moment, they were in the open, having just crossed over a shallow spur and begun to curve around and down onto the broad shelf of rock that lay beneath it. Not far along the path Xena could see a defensible place, where the ledge began to fall below the ridge they had crossed, and some loose rock had fallen away, leaving an overhang. She pointed to it. "No noise. Now move!" 

As quietly as they could, they scrambled down the path, ducking under the ledge. As they did so, the creature appeared, soaring into sight from around the far side of the mountain peak above them. 

It was the largest animal Gabrielle had ever seen. The bulbous body alone was bigger than a horse, and with its membraneous wings extended, it was enormous. At the tip of each wing was a rudimentary paw, with three sharp claws. Its neck was long and bony, with folds of leathery skin, and seemed to barely support its head. Tiny, deep-set eyes on either side of the head framed a giant beak, wide like a lizard's, and lined with rows of sharp teeth. Its legs were small but powerful, and ended in raptor-like claws, and tail was broad and flat. Dangling from those sharp hind claws was a half grown lamb. 

Xena sighed in relief. "Thank the gods, it's only part grown," she whispered. "It's still hunting easy prey. That's either a runt, or lateborn and probably the weakest of the flock." 

As they watched, the creature flew lazily overhead, towards the seaward side of the mountain to the north of them. Xena turned to the other two. "I've got to see where it's headed." As she looked overhead speculatively, as if contemplating a climb to higher ground, Rillian quickly pulled a small tube out of the purse that hung from her waist. "Take this. It's a seeing glass." 

Xena nodded, and grabbing it from the other woman, reached above her for a handhold on the rock ledge, and then swung up and out of sight. Below, Gabrielle and Rillian continued to watch the phantastical beast until it had flown out of range of their sight. 

"That was only part grown?" Gabrielle whispered in amazement, although the flying horror was no longer visible. 

Suddenly there was a tiny shower of loose pebbles, and Xena had appeared beside them once more. "Well, at least we know what direction to search," she commented, handing the glass back to Rillian. "I've heard of these before, but never one this powerful." 

"It was made in a land far from here. I guess they have more experience making them. Where do you think the creature lairs?" 

Xena pointed up towards the mountain to the north of them. "See that big column of rock jutting out on the northeast slope? It was starting to descend as it neared there. I think its nest must be north of there, and inland." 

"Do you want to start searching now?" asked Gabrielle. 

"No, first we warn the villages on the coast." Grimly, Xena looked down toward the coast. "If they don't already know. And stop them from staking out their daughters for a sacrifice. Then, we hunt the beast, and its nest. Let's get going. We have less time than I thought." 

They pressed on down the mountainside, travelling silently at first, as the reality of the creature's presence somewhere in the cliffs and canyons around them sank in. Finally, Gabrielle could stand the soundless atmosphere of tension no longer. " Xena. When we saw that... thing, you said it wasn't full grown. How much bigger was the one you and your men killed?" 

"About three times." 

"Does it have a name?" 

"A what?" Xena asked incredulously. 

"A name. You know, like the Minotaur, or the Gorgons, or the Bacchai. Monsters usually have names. How about this one?" 

"I don't think so." 

"What do the villagers around here call it?" 

"Last time I was here, they called it the monster." 

"Well, that's hardly a precise name." Gabrielle turned to Rillian. "Imagine, in a few years, once I've written a song about this, how are people going to ask for it? 'Tell me the story of Xena and the Monster?' Which monster? It needs a name." 

Xena shook her head in bewilderment. "Go ahead and name it then, Gabrielle." 

"What do you think, Rillian? What would you call it?" 

"I'd have to think about that one." 

"Hmmm, Let's see. Fangterror? Skyterror? Wingfear? Skyclaw?" 

"Skyfang? Rockfright?" 

"Oh, that one's good. But not quite. Stoneclaw?" 

Xena interrupted their musings. "Why don't you just call it the Thing?" 

"No poetry to it." Gabrielle pronounced. "Imagine announcing you're going to recite the tale of Xena and the Thing." 

Rillian chimed in. "It could start a new trend in epic titles. Hercules and the Three-headed Whatsis." 

Gabrielle giggled. "Jason and the Golden Whatever." 

"Gabrielle. Rillian. Could you talk about this later? We need some speed here, and you're wasting your breath laughing." 

"Sorry, Xena. It's just the tension." For the rest of the afternoon, they trekked on in relative silence, though Gabrielle continued to mutter softly, as she considered potential names for the anonymous creature. 

Despite the added urging for speed, nightfall found them still in the pass, though low enough that the next day would easily see them clear of the mountains. For some time they had been forging on through the gathering dusk, with one eye on the terrain for a possible shelter. Finally, as they clambered down the side of one of the steeper ridges into a small ravine, they found a small hollow, where wind and rain had worn away the soft shale below a shelf of harder granite. Grateful for the overhead cover, they crowded in, finding room enough for three to rest comfortably, if at close quarters, with space for Argo as well. 

"It's more exposed than I'd like", Xena noted, as she unsaddled Argo, and fed her some more grain. 

"Can't have everything," Gabrielle responded, as she snatched the last of the wood from the pile of gear Argo had carried to build the fire with. "It's too dark to look further, and it's the best campsite we've seen in the last two hours." 

"That wood won't last the night," observed Rillian. "There were some dead scrub trees higher up on the side of this hill, I'll go get enough for the night." 

"Be careful," Xena warned her. "I don't know if this thing hunts at night." 

"Don't worry." Rillian grinned, and patted the handaxe she carried in her belt. "I'm too big for it to carry, and I know how to use this." 

"Thought you might." Xena grinned back. "But be careful anyway." 

Rillian slipped out into the rapidly deepening darkness, as Xena sat down beside Gabrielle in front of the fire. 

"I haven't been in the best of moods," she said. 

"I understand." Gabrielle turned to look into Xena's deep blue eyes. "You failed these people, twice, and it's eating you up inside. It'll keep on eating at you 'til you fix it. You have nothing to apologise to me for." 

"Thanks, Gabrielle. I'm glad you're here." 

Gabrielle smiled. "Where else would I be? I want to be with you, to help you, even to fight horrible flying monsters with you." Suddenly, Gabrielle felt a rush of emotion rising in her, threatening to bring her to tears. Swallowing hard to keep her feelings under control, she turned away and started rooting in the saddlebags for cooking pots and some of their store of food. "Besides, where else could an aspiring bard get such great material? That creature is going to be the stuff of nightmares, once I finish writing about it." 

Xena smiled. "So what are you going to call it?" 

"I thought you didn't care." 

"I was thinking about it. You were right. 'The Ballad of Xena and the Big Critter' just doesn't have the right ring to it." 

Gabrielle started to laugh, her shoulders shaking helplessly. 

"I didn't think it was that funny." 

The bard pointed to Xena's chakram, and struggled to regain her breath. "I was just thinking of Princess Diana. Could you imagine the reaction to a line like 'Swift and sure, the ice-eyed warrior cast her round killing thingy at the awful big critter, bringing it low!'. I could never get a place at a festival again!" 

Xena joined her in laughter. "That would be a bit much. So what are you going to call it?" 

"Wingclaw, I think." Gabrielle set down the packet of trail food she held in her hands, and began to stretch out her arms, fingers contorted like claws. "It kind of describes what's most unusual about it, those weird wings that stretch out from its body, and the claws right at the end." She waved her arms for emphasis. "And the repeated "wh" sound gives you the sense of something swooping through the air." 

"Wingclaw. 'Xena and the Wingclaw'. Yeah, that sounds better." Xena reached out, and put her arm around Gabrielle's shoulder, drawing the younger woman close against her. "I've been listening to you and Rillian talk about bardology, or whatever." 

"It's been kind of hard to avoid it." 

"I don't think I'd stopped to think about how hard it is to do what you do before. It's like mounting a campaign, only with words. And you're damned good at it." She gave Gabrielle a quick squeeze, losing herself for a moment in the sensation of that warm, soft body pressed closely against hers, fitting so perfectly, curve to curve. She caught herself, and drew away, uneasy that she might forget and hold the bright-eyed poet too closely. "I just thought I'd let you know." 

"Thanks. It means a lot to me. That you think I'm good, that is. I know you know that writing means a lot to me." She scooped the dried meat she had cut, and some grain and herbs into the cook pot, and set it near the fire. "Hand me that waterskin? Thanks. There we go," she said. "Stew again, as soon as it's simmered a bit." 

"There's an inn in the village below." 

"Oh great! Food I didn't cook myself. Baths. Hot water baths..." She was interrupted by Rillian, returning with an armful of wood. 

"Baths?" 

"Xena says there's an inn in the village." 

"Ah. Baths. Excellent." Rillian settled down by the fire, opposite Xena. "I like hot baths." 

"And real beds," Gabrielle added, with a wistful tone. "Warm beds." 

"Soft beds," added Rillian. "And a goblet of wine with dinner." 

"Pastries dripping with honey and nuts for dessert." 

"Someone else to clean up." 

"If you two are finished," Xena spoke wryly, "the stew is boiling. I think it's ready." 

Rillian sighed. "Back to reality. Hand me the plates, I'll dish it out. And there's some more flatbread in my pack, may as well finish it before it gets mouldy." 

"Right. There you are," said Xena, as Rillian took the plates and loaded each with bread and stew. 

"Do you think the Wingclaw will be back tomorrow?" Gabrielle mumbled through a mouth full of stew. 

Xena shrugged. "Assume the worst, you won't be disappointed." 

"You decided on Wingclaw?" asked Rillian. "I like it. Sharp, hard sounds. Nasty word for a nasty animal." 

"And it's better than 'big ugly critter'," Gabrielle smiled, and looked up at Xena. 

"Yeah, it is." Xena smiled. "But speaking of big ugly critters, I think we should take watches tonight. This hollow is better than nothing, but it's not safe." 

"I was thinking the same thing," Rillian agreed. 

"Good. I'll take first watch. Rillian, you can take second." 

"What about me?" 

Xena looked at Gabrielle, her face deadpan. "If Rillian can manage to wake you up, you can have the dawn watch." 

"I don't sleep that soundly." 

"I never said you did. It's up to Rillian, and how hard she feels like shaking you." 

"Rillian, she is exaggerating. Really. I'll be fine with the dawn watch." 

"Don't worry about it Gabrielle. I'll wake you. But I think we ought to get to sleep soon, if we're taking watches." She wiped her plate as clean as possible with the last of the bread, and then reached for some grass to complete the job. The others followed suit, scouring the cookpot with grass as well before packing the utensils away. Then, with a quiet chorus of goodnights, Rillian and Gabrielle curled up in their blankets, while Xena turned half away from them, and stared out into the darkness, listening, watching, for any hint that the beast she had come to hunt was hunting her instead. 

Today had been only an introduction to the quarry. She'd seen it, caught the scent, marked her prey. Tomorrow the hunt would begin in earnest.


	5. Chapter 5

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

### Chapter Five

The night had been quiet. Xena had nothing to report to Rillian when she awoke her at midnight to take the second watch, nor had Rillian heard or seen anything in the least alarming during the night. This observation, however, did little to pacify Gabrielle the following morning when she awoke to find the sun already rising, and both Xena and Rillian sitting at the fire, comparing the designs and battle effectiveness of swords and axes.

"Why didn't you wake me?" she demanded of Rillian. 

"I tried," responded the target of her ire, face and voice both schooled to total innocence. "You just snuggled closer to Xena and mumbled at me. If I'd shaken any harder, I would have woken Xena, and she needed the sleep. So I just stayed up." 

"I don't believe you. I'm not that hard to wake up." 

Rillian shrugged. "What's done is done. If it happens again, I'll try harder to wake you." 

"You'd better." She stretched, and then stopped short, as the implications of Rillian's other comments hit her. She'd been holding onto Xena in her sleep. From her position behind Xena, she watched her closely for some moments, looking for any sign that Rillian's words had meant something to the warrior. 

As if on cue, Xena turned to look at her. "Gabrielle, you'd better hurry up and eat. We have to get moving soon." She stopped, and peered closely at the bard. "Are you all right?" 

"Me? Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little stiff." She stretched again, with an exaggerated motion. 

"Well, no wonder, it was pretty cold last night." Rillian observed. "I assume that's why you were holding Xena so close. Body heat, you know." 

"You were still holding on when I woke up this morning," added Xena, wishing in silence that it had been anything other than the cold that had brought Gabrielle so close to her that she could still smell her scent in her own dark hair. "It was still cold, too. No wonder you wouldn't let go of me." 

"That must have been it." Gabrielle laughed, and carefully looked away from Xena's penetrating blue eyes. "I don't even remember it." 

Rillian shot a quick glance at both Xena and Gabrielle, then smiled with secret mischief to herself. "Come and eat. As Xena says, we have to move soon." 

For most of the morning they pressed on down the mountain side, Xena walking point, with her eyes darting in all directions. Argo followed her, with Gabrielle beside her, eyes moving between the sky above her and the ground beneath, and Rillian took the rear, as alert as the others for the slightest sight or sound of danger. Today they travelled quietly, lest conversation cover the sounds of the creature approaching, and they travelled in haste, hoping to make the village below by nightfall. 

As they wound further down the slope, the path they trod grew wider and opened up more and more into rills and gullies, some dry so late in the year, but a few bearing evidence of streams that flowed, however thinly, throughout the year. Even as the descent became more gentle in places, still there were other points where the rough road hugged close to the side of the mountain, and the narrowing ledges demanded caution to avoid falling from the trail. 

They were moving single file along one such patch when Xena spotted a speck in the sky above them. She held up her hand in warning, and pointed above them to the north. For some seconds they stood watching as the speck grew larger, until Xena and Rillian together spoke out. "It's the creature." 

"The wingclaw," Gabrielle said. 

"Whatever," muttered Xena. 

As the beast came closer, Xena signalled Argo to close in against the rockwall, and pushed Gabrielle down and under the belly of the horse. Gabrielle, who had begun to brandish her staff at the beast, uttered an angry protest. 

"Gabrielle, there's no time to argue. Get down. It's too small to grab Argo, but it might try for you." She drew her sword and planted herself between Gabrielle and the creature. Rillian pulled her axe loose and took up her stance beside her. Together, they stood guard over Argo and the bard huddled beneath her. 

Xena glanced at Rillian. "Remember, try to drive it off, not kill it." Rillian nodded sharply in response, and gripped her axe more firmly. 

Screeching loudly, its huge wings waving furiously, the beast flew nearer to their position on the ledge, strong taloned claws extended and grasping. Its carrion breath rolled over them in warm, noxious clouds as it swooped down in the instinctive manner of any raptor bird, ready to snatch up its prey. 

Xena and Rillian struck as one, slicing at the creature's muscular legs. The leathery skin was tough and strong, but they struck again as it lifted away from them, and on the second stroke Xena drew blood. Screaming defiance, the creature pulled its legs close in to its body and climbed out of their reach. They watched as it flew higher and higher. 

"It's going to stoop on us," Xena said. 

"I'm ready." 

Suddenly, it began to dive towards them, as Xena and Rillian braced themselves for another pass. Suddenly it veered away from the ledge, and instead of striking with its powerful hindlegs, it slashed at them with the great claw on its wingtip. Caught off guard by the move, Rillian's thigh was grazed, but she quickly recovered her balance and struck at the thick wing membrane, where a jagged tear from Xena's sword was already visible. The beast rose and dove once more, flying at them from the other direction, and slicing at Xena with the claw on its unhurt wing. Xena ducked and drove her sword up through the wing, wounding the beast yet again. Beside her Rillian swung her axe at the gaping hole, rending it further. 

The beast was in pain, and enraged. These warmthings should have been food. Instead they had grown strange hard claws and wounded it. Maddened, it swung around in the air and dove straight for the source of its irritation, maw agape and fangs glistening, a high scream pouring from its throat. 

Xena voiced her own battlecry in challenge, and with swinging motions of her arms to draw the creature's attention to her, backed down the path, just enough that Argo and Gabrielle were no longer immediately behind her. The monster swerved to follow her, as Rillian ducked beneath the great wing that raked across the ledge on which she stood. Again striking together, Xena sliced at the creature's neck before wheeling out of its reach, while Rillian dealt another blow to its tattered wing, driving it up and away from the horse and girl behind her, even as she tore another gaping hole in its wing. A last stroke from Xena as it completed its pass sliced off a portion of its tail. It screamed again and, breaking off its attack, fled towards the mountain to the north, where Xena had seen it head the day before. 

For a moment both Xena and Rillian stood and watched it fly into the distance, alert against the chance that it might reappear. As the minutes passed, and no renewed attack came, they relaxed. Gabrielle crawled out from her refuge beneath Argo, eyes wide. Her voice broke the stillness. 

"Rillian. You're hurt. Your leg, it's bleeding. You'd better let Xena look at it. She's really good with that kind of thing." 

Xena turned to look at Rillian, who glanced down at her own thigh, now slowly oozing blood. "It's not bad. Once I bind it, I'll be good as new." 

Xena moved in, to take a closer look. "You'd better let me clean that. Its talons could be poisonous - or even just plain filthy, and if it's not cleaned properly, the wound could go bad, and you could lose the leg." 

"It's all right Xena," Rillian said. "I know something about field surgery myself. I'll just get my kit out of my pack and deal with it." Rillian turned and dug around in her pack for a few minutes, before bringing out a small bag. 

Gabrielle turned to her. "Do you need any help? Bandaging that, maybe? I've done a fair amount of bandaging and poulticing and so on." 

"No, it's fine." Rillian paused. "Uh... healing is kind of a private matter in my homeland. I'll just head down the path a bit, and take care of this, if that's all right with you?" 

Xena looked at her and shrugged. "If that's your way. But if that wound starts to rot, I'm going to take care of it my way, private rituals or not. You hear me?" 

"I hear you. And if it does not heal properly, I will allow your care." Limping now, though only slightly, Rillian headed down the path, stopping just far enough away that they could not see her movements clearly as she sat on the ground, back towards them, and tended to her leg. 

Even though she could not see what Rillian was doing, Gabrielle watched intently for a few minutes. "Now that's really odd. I've never heard of healing being something secret. Even in the Temples of Aesclepius, where it's all sacred - or supposed to be \- nobody makes any secret out of it. I wonder why." 

Xena shrugged. "She comes from very far away. Who knows how different things are there." 

"What if something happens to her and she can't take care of it herself?" 

"She either lets someone else help her, or she dies. Her choice, if she's in a condition to make it." 

"But it's such a strange thing, especially if her people do so much travelling." 

"Ask her about it, then. When we get somewhere safe." Xena took another look up at the sky, which remained clear of threat. Taking Argo's reins again, she began to move down the path toward Rillian. "Let's get going. She looks like she's packing up her kit." 

As Xena had thought, by the time she and Gabrielle reached Rillian, the dark-skinned woman had finished caring for her injury, and had stood to meet them. She moved much more easily now, almost as if she had never been wounded, and showing though the slash in her trousers was a pad of grey cloth, hiding the site of the wound. She smiled, a little sheepishly, at the other women. 

"Thanks for indulging me. You'd think that, travelling so much and so far, I'd stop feeling so strongly about customs like this. But some things just don't go away." Her kit replaced in her pack, she moved to the rear position once more. "I'm fine now. Let's get moving." 

With renewed caution they continued along the slowly descending trail, Rillian on point and Xena in the rear, ready for any sign that the return of the beast was immanent. But no second attack came, and by the time the sun had begun to drop towards the great expanse of sea that had lain before them for much of the day, they came at last out of the pass and looked down upon the narrow coastal plain. 

Immediately below them lay a thin swath of trees, which dwindled rapidly into a stretch of dry flat land, covered with coarse grasses, swept all in one direction by the winds blowing off the ocean. The grassland ended in a line of crumbling bluffs that fell away to the rocky beaches beneath. To the north of their vantage point, a ragged hollow that marked the course of a snow-fed stream cut across the grassland toward the sea. From where they stood, the trail forked sharply, one branch leading north, the other, south. 

"That way," said Xena, as she led them down from the foot of the pass, along the trail heading north into the woods, in the direction of the riverbed. "There's a small harbour where that gully meets the water. The nearest town's down there." 

After travelling for a time in the cover of the trees, Gabrielle, found herself relaxing slightly from the tension that had lain heavily on them since their first sighting of the creature. "So, Xena, this town we're headed to, it's the same town you visited before, right?" 

"Yes." 

"You did say there was an inn, right Xena?" 

"Last time I was here, there was." 

"So what do they do here, mostly? Is it a fishing village?" 

"Some. There's a market, too." 

Rillian nodded. "Closest town to the pass, that makes sense." 

"It's the biggest town along this stretch of the coast," Xena added. "If they're starting sacrifices, this is where they'll bring the victims. There's a huge rock spire a few hours walk north of the town, right at the foot of the mountains. That's where they've always staked out the sacrifices." She snorted with disgust. "It's their tradition." 

"And this time, we'll stop it for ever," Gabrielle announced with confidence. "I know you, Xena, you'll do it." 

Xena made another indistinct sound, and turned her attention back to picking out the path through the trees. Gabrielle turned to Rillian. "She will. And then we can both dine forever on the tale of Xena and the Wingclaw." 

"Right now I'd settle for a bath and a bed," Rillian responded. 

"Me too," said Gabrielle. 

"Is that all?" 

The young bard looked sharply at the older woman, whose lips were curled up in a smile. She nodded her head, shaking her dark braids in Xena's direction. Gabrielle glared, and made a sharp silencing motion. "Well, maybe some nutbread, too." 

"That's the thing about inns. Most times you only get what you ask for. Come to think of it, life's kind of like that, too, don't you think?" 

Still glaring, and fighting to keep her voice steady, and at a normal pitch, Gabrielle replied, "The trick is to ask for things that you're likely to have a chance of getting. I might ask for nutbread, but it wouldn't make any sense to ask for the moon." 

"But you'll never know if the moon's available unless you ask." 

Xena turned her head to look at her two companions. "Can you hold the philosophy debate until we get settled for the night? Or is that asking for the moon?" 

Gabrielle and Rillian looked at each other. "The moon?" said the older woman. 

"Nah," said Gabrielle. "But almost as hard to get. Two bards holding off on a debate? That's asking a lot." 

"Very funny." Xena paused. "We're almost there, and I'm not sure if they'll be happy to see me or not. So let's take things carefully until we know." 

"Right. We were just..." 

"I know what you were doing, Gabrielle. Just stop it for now, okay?" Xena started forward again, as the trail they followed led out of the trees toward the edge of the small ravine. 

Feeling exposed once more, it took no effort for Gabrielle to lapse into silence as the three automatically fell into the single file they had travelled in through the pass, though the trail was now wide enough that all three could have travelled abreast. Once they reached the broad gash in the land that marked the streambed, the trail, well shored up with rock and wood, led them down the weathered and eroded side of the gully, toward the water. On either side of the watercourse, small patches of the land had been sown with grain, and others planted as gardens. The grain was ripe now, where it had not already been reaped, and the garden vines and bushes laden with produce. All along the little river valley men and women laboured, bent over scythes and baskets, working into the early evening to secure the last of the harvest. 

Even so, as the band of travellers passed along the trail toward the town, heads were turned to look at them in silence, and in their wake the faintest of murmurs seemed to ripple from one field to another. 

"I suppose they don't get many travellers this late in the season," Rillian said quietly. 

"It's more than that," Gabrielle countered, shaking her head. "Xena, they do know you. Or at least some of them do, and they're telling the rest." 

"I expected as much." Xena pointed to the top of the ravine, as young boy on the high ground overtook them, running towards the town. "They'll be waiting for us." 

"Who?" asked Gabrielle. 

"The town elders, I would imagine. Now be quiet. Let me do the talking when we get there, all right?" 

"Oh, of course, naturally, I mean, you've been here before, and obviously, they remember you, and... I should be quiet now, right?" 

"Right," said Xena, with grim finality. 

They soon passed the last of the gardens, and the grasses that grew in the uncultivated areas of the ravine floor grew coarse and sparse as they came ever closer to the tiny harbour, and the salt water began to mix with the water from the stream. At last, they came to the little town. The stream around which the town had been built veered sharply toward the north wall of the gully, leaving a broad flat area on its southern bank. Here lay the major part of the town, though it was in truth little more than a village, with perhaps two score houses clustered around an open square that would host the weekly market. Around the market square as well were several larger and more imposing buildings, including a small temple to Poseidon, and the village tavern, which also served as an inn for the occasional traveller. A small wooden bridge joined the two parts of the town, though only a few houses had been built on the northern shore of the river. Instead, long sheds for drying fish and storing boats and nets and fishing gear lined most of the north bank. The stream widened and grew deep on the seaward side, enough that a few wharves had been built, where the town's small fishing fleet was moored for the night. 

As they followed the road past the outlying houses toward the town square, the handful of townsfolk in their path moved quickly aside as they came near, then stood standing to watch them pass. Faces appeared in windows and doorways. The same wave of silence that had followed them along the small valley path, seemed to move with them here as well, as conversations ebbed into silence as they approached, and rose again to an anxious buzz as they passed out of earshot. 

"We are definitely causing a stir," Gabrielle whispered to Rillian, who had drawn up beside her. 

"I wonder if they know why we're here," Rillian responded, glancing ahead at Xena, who squared her shoulders and walked resolutely on, as if oblivious to the murmurs and glances around them. 

"Maybe they already know about the..." 

"Gabrielle," Xena hissed at her, barely turning her head. 

Gabrielle sighed. "Well, at least it looks like we can have fish for supper. I love roasted fish." 

Rillian smiled archly. "I though all you were going to ask for was nutbread." 

Before Gabrielle could respond, they entered the square. There was no market today, and the square held few permanent fixtures, beyond a few benches and a small wooden platform in the middle of the square. Though many of the alleys and doorways that opened onto the square seemed to hold more than a few of the townsfolk, their eyes fixed on the newcomers, the square itself was empty save for the three people who sat on one of the benches outside the inn, looking expectantly in their direction. Two men, one old and greybearded, one of middle age, with the wiry strength of a fisherman, and one matronly woman awaited them. Xena led the way across the square, and as she approached, the three stood to greet her.


	6. Chapter 6

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

### Chapter Six

"So it is you, Warrior Princess," said the older man. "The runner's description was good, but I did not think to see you without your warrior band."

"Hello Timon. It's just plain Xena now. I'm out of the warlord business." 

"I see. News takes some time to reach us here on the coast. You are still armed as a warrior, though." 

"I keep my hand in." 

"What brings you back to Thalassepolis?" 

"A bit of this, a little of that. You know how it is. I don't recognise your associates." 

"Ah yes, Climene and Ataxes were still on the village council when last you were here, as I recall. Ataxes was lost at sea three years back, and Climene died of the coughing sickness last winter. May I introduce to you my fellow elders." Timon turned first toward the younger man beside him. "This stout fellow is Deiron, one of our best fishermen, and the third of our number is Melanthe, our midwife." 

"Honoured," Xena said, nodding to each of them. "We need to talk, elders of Thalassepolis. But not here." 

"Indeed?" queried Melanthe. 

Yes. Do you still have your private councils in that little room in back of the Temple?" 

Timon nodded. 

Fine." Xena turned to Gabrielle and Rillian. "Why don't you get settled into the inn, and I'll have my talk with these people." She handed Argo's reins to Gabrielle. "I'll be back." 

Xena began walking toward the Temple of Poseidon, the village elders following in tow, all with an air of slight bemusement, as though they were not quite certain when the encounter had slipped out of their hands and into Xena's. Gabrielle and Rillian stared after them for a moment. Rillian smiled. "Does she do that often?" 

"All the time. She may not be a warlord anymore, but she's still... very commanding, if you know what I mean." Gabrielle turned to look at the inn. "Well, we have our orders." 

"Yes, we do." 

With the formidable warrior princess out of striking range, the stable boy ran out to take Argo to shelter, and Rillian and Gabrielle went into the inn to arrange for rooms, baths, and dinner. 

Across the square, in a small but well appointed meeting room attached to the Temple, Xena, Timon and Melanthe had seated themselves around a polished wooden table. Deiron bustled about for a few moments, setting goblets out, and pouring wine before joining them at the table. 

Xena sat quietly for a moment, looking at each of Thalassepolis' elders in turn. One after another they tried to hold her gaze as long as possible, but eventually each one had turned away. 

"You know why I've come back." 

Timon spoke. "Xena, there is nothing you can do. You above all others should know that. You killed it once, and like the Phoenix, it returned. What does it matter if you kill it again? You'll go away, and the next time it returns, can you swear to return to protect us? Will you be here the time after that, and the time after that?" 

"Timon. It can be killed. Forever. I know how." 

Timon leaned forward in his chair. "What can you do that you have not already done? We have been through this before. It changes nothing." He slumped back in his seat. "The beast is immortal. We must live with this, as our fathers and their fathers lived with this." 

"All this does is give false hope to our people," Melanthe continued. "Hope that the curse that was laid on this land can be ended. You can't end it, Xena. No one can. And you know it. You tried that before. You failed." 

"I failed because I didn't understand. Now, I think I do." 

Anger in his voice, Deiron spoke. "Oh. Now you think you understand. We have always understood, because it is our land the gods have cursed, and our blood that must provide the sacrifice. When we have paid enough in blood, then the creature will go away for a time. When the gods demand more of us, it will come again. This is the way we have always lived. Don't try to change things, you'll only bring more suffering down upon us all." 

"Xena." Melanthe's voice was gentle, after Deiron's harshness. "We know you want to help us. We appreciate it. But there really is nothing you can do." 

"Go away, Xena," Timon spoke softly, barely more than a whisper. "Go before the people start hoping again." 

"You are the most pathetic bunch of cowards I've seen in... I don't know how long." Xena stood, leaning forward, hands laid flat on the table in front of her. "You don't even want to listen. Too bad. I'm going to tell you anyway. It can be killed. It's no more immortal than you or I. My mistake, the first time, was in thinking it was the only one. My mistake, the second time, was in staying away to follow my battle plans until it had stopped hunting, until it had hatched its young and died. This time, I won't kill it until I've seen its lair with my own eyes, and destroyed its offspring. Then I'll kill it. And it will be over." She stood erect once more, looking around the table at the others. 

For a few seconds, all were silent. Then, one by one, they shook their heads sadly. "Give up, Xena." Timon said. "You looked for a lair last time, and didn't find one..." 

"With only fifty men, and an entire mountain range to search? No one could have found the lair without the help of a god... but while it still lives, it can be tracked. It will lead us straight to its nest. There's no need to search, only to follow." 

"Don't do this to us, or to yourself." Melanthe sighed. "It is a curse, some say. Perhaps it is only the price we must pay to the gods for the bounty of the fields and the sea, and the protection the mountains give us. The warlords don't bother us here, no great empires march along our little strip of land and threaten us with conquest. We are happy, here, for the most part. Perhaps the gods ask from us the blood that would otherwise be shed in strife." 

"The gods don't want your sacrifices - except Hera, and what she offers in return, you don't want. What you have here is a mortal creature, an animal that will always take easily captured prey over a hard hunt. You've enslaved yourselves to an animal because it's easier to let it kill your children that it is to hunt it down and finish it and its line forever." 

Deiron leapt up, anger in his eyes, as his fist slammed against the table. "You don't know what it's like. Get out of this town, Xena. Get out before I throw you out." Barely under control, he stalked from the room. Methanthe jumped up to follow him. 

"You didn't know this, Xena," Timon said. "The last time it came, Deiron's daughter was one of the sacrifices." 

Xena turned away for a moment, cursing beneath her breath, before turning on Timon once more. "Doesn't he understand I want to end that. There will be no more sacrifices." 

Timon smiled sadly. "And how then would Deiron feel, knowing that he did not have to send his daughter to her death?" He sighed. "But that doesn't really matter, because I don't think there's anything you can do." 

"Let me try, Timon. Hold back the sacrifices, and let me try." She looks sharply at him. "You haven't begun the sacrifices already, have you?" 

Timon shook his head. "No one has died... yet. But I can't stop it, Xena. It's our way." 

"Timon, I can end this. But you have to do your part. Don't start the sacrifices. Give me some time." 

"I'll do what I can. No promises." 

"Use sheep, or goats then. The beast won't know the difference." 

"The gods will know. It's always been our way. Only maidens who have not known the touch of man. It's the tradition." 

"Find an untouched goat, then. There must be some around." 

"The gods demand our blood, not the blood of animals." A noise at the door halted their argument. 

Melanthe returned, speaking first to Timon. "He's calmer now." She looked at Xena. "I told him that we couldn't just send you away in the night, not when you'd come so far, and your intentions were good. He'll not bother you, as long as you stay out of his way for a while." 

"I understand how he must feel. Just the thought of losing one's child... but you must believe me, I can do this for you. No more children need die in vain." 

Melanthe locked eyes with Timon, who said to her, "Xena has asked us to delay the beginning of the sacrifices. I told her that no one has died yet, but that I could make no promises." 

The older woman nodded, and turned to Xena. "This is our way. We cannot change it on the chance that things might be different tomorrow. It would be better for all if you would just leave quietly in the morning." 

"I will not leave here until this is ended. I had hoped for your help. If you refuse, then I'll do it alone. But I will not leave." 

Melanthe shrugged. "That is your choice. Although... remember, if you stay, you and your friends are subject to the choosing, just as any other maiden in the town." 

Xena laughed, feeling the irony of the situation all too keenly. This veiled threat was one she had the perfect answer for, thanks to her rival in Gabrielle's heart."If you mean to threaten Gabrielle, don't bother. She's a widow. And as for Rillian or myself, if you can hold either of us down long enough to check our maidenhoods, you'll deserve whatever you get. No maidens of any suitable kind for a sacrifice here. Though that was a brave attempt to scare me away." 

"It was worth a try." 

"Just let me do what I've come here to do... and hold off killing your daughters until I have a chance to save them." 

Timon and Melanthe exchanged glances once more. Finally Timon spoke. "I think that perhaps we need not send anyone to the rock for a day or two. You have that much time." 

Disgusted, Xena stalked to the door. "I'll take what I can get," she said over her shoulder as she pulled it open. "And here's fair warning. If you try to stake anyone out, I'll do my best to stop you. Think about that, while you're grovelling in front of your traditions." With a final venomous look at the two elders, she left the room, closing the door behind her with a vigourous yank that rattled doors and shutters throughout the Temple. 

On her way out, she paused before the altar of Poseidon, looking up towards the sacred symbols of the god, and the fires that burned on the altar. "Poseidon. Are you listening? Do you know these people believe you drink their children's blood? Do you care? Have you ever spent a moment of your godhood trying to help these people that worship you so much they'll pay you in their own blood?" She waited for a moment, then curled her lip in disdain. "I thought not," she muttered bitterly, and turned her back on the altar. How typical, she thought as she left the temple and headed back across the square towards the inn. As usual, the gods were wrapped up in their own petty affairs, and heedless of the mortals who implored them for aid. The best way to deal with the gods, she had found again and again, was to make sure you had something they wanted, and bargain closely. Gods! Omnipotent children was more like it. She had more respect for that odious cheat, Salmoneus. 

Rillian and Gabrielle were seated at a table by the fireplace, platters of broiled fish and fresh greens, and a pitcher of wine in front of them. Both looked up from their conversation as she sat down beside Gabrielle. 

"You don't look very pleased with things," Gabrielle remarked after a glance at the scowl on Xena's face. 

"Cowards. Shortsighted, murdering cowards. They won't help us track the monster. And they won't give their word to stop the sacrifices." 

"But why?" Gabrielle asked, disbelief etched onto her face. "Don't they understand that you want to free them from this thing. That if they help you now, it'll be gone forever?" 

"I don't know. Maybe they've lost all ability to hope. Maybe they're just too afraid of change to try. Doesn't matter. We're on our own." 

Rillian shrugged. "We have been so far, and we've done all right." 

"True, but we could have used some decent trackers." Xena sighed. "Instead, we split our efforts between following that thing, and making sure they don't start the sacrifices." 

"How do you plan to do that?" Rillian asked. 

Xena glanced around. There was no one within listening range. She leaned in towards Gabrielle and Rillian, and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Tomorrow, we head out to that rock ourselves, set up camp nearby. If they bring a girl out to the rock, we wait til they go and cut her free. There's deer, and mountain goats, around here - I trap one, use it for bait instead. And when the beast comes, I follow it while you two wait in case they try to stake out someone else." 

"I don't like it," said Gabrielle. "Are you sure you can take that thing on alone, if it sees you following, and turns on you?" 

"Gabrielle, don't worry." She smiled. "Besides, I don't hear you coming up with a better idea." 

Rillian nodded. "She's right, Gabrielle. Without help, and with the chance that others may be put in danger too, there's not really anything else we can do. At least we know it's possible to drive the monster off." 

Xena made a cutting motion with her hand, and leaned back, away from the others. As she did so, the tavern girl came over, a hesitancy plain on her face and in your voice as she spoke to Xena. "Would you like your dinner now? Your friends ordered for you, but asked me to wait until you arrived." 

Xena nodded. Gabrielle spoke up. "Uh...Therese, that was your name, right?" 

"Yes, miss." 

"When you bring Xena's fish, could you also get me some nutbread? And maybe some fruit for dessert?" 

"Yes, miss." As the girl walked away, they heard her muttering something about how three women could possibly consume so much food. Gabrielle started to laugh. A minute later, Xena joined in. "I know why I eat so much," she said. "I picked up the habit a long time ago, before I had my own army. This grizzled old veteran of dozens of wars took me under his arm and told me that a real soldier never passes up any chance at three things... sleep, food, and... well, his third choice never interested me all that much." She looked at Gabrielle. "And what's your excuse?" 

"Me? I'm just a farm girl. Simple pleasures for simple minds." By now, all three were laughing. The serving girl, emboldened by their hilarity, returned with their requests and set them down, looking at all three as if they were just a little mad. 

Xena took a deep breath. "You, Gabrielle, have a far from simple mind. And you can still eat more nutbread than any three other people I know." 

Rillian reached out and snatched a piece of fruit. "I'm with Xena on this one. Eat and sleep when you can, you never know when you next chance will be for either. Of course, an argument can be made for that third thing your soldier friend mentioned too, wouldn't you say, Gabrielle?" 

"Huh? What do you mean?" 

"We eat and sleep when we can, because the life of an adventurer is fraught with mischance and peril. Maybe we should look the same way at love as well." 

"Oh, I don't think that was exactly what he meant," Gabrielle answered quickly before burying her face in her nutbread. 

"I know it wasn't," Xena said. "His concerns were a touch less, uh, elevated, shall we say." 

Rillian looked at Xena with piercing dark eyes. "But it's still a valid point, isn't it? We need love to survive, just as we need food, or sleep. Why not grasp at it whenever and wherever we find it?" 

Xena held her gaze for a moment, trying to read the message behind the words. Had Rillian seen through her, sensed her feelings for Gabrielle? Or was Rillian herself in love with the young bard, and asking Xena's permission, as her guardian, to court her? Either way, this was no conversation she was prepared to enter into. She turned away, forcing a laugh. "You bards! You spend too much time on philosophy for me. I'll stick to fish." 

Rillian shrugged. "Fish has its good points, too." 

"Next, I want a bath." Gabrielle turned to Xena. "I asked them to get the bath-house ready, so anytime you're ready, we can go. I am so looking forward to being clean, even if it's just for one night." 

Xena picked up a few pieces of fruit, and stood up. "Let's go, then. I want to get to sleep early." 

The serving girl saw them rise, and hurried over. "You'll want your baths now, I guess." 

Gabrielle smiled. "Lead on, fair damsel, to those pleasant realms where hot water awaits us." 

"She means, yes, thank you," Rillian added by way of interpretation. 

The maid shrugged, and led them outside to the small bath-house. Smoke rose invitingly from the chimney, and as they stepped inside, they saw a large shallow tub, big enough for three or four to sit in, and a line of huge kettles steaming over the fire. The girl started to pour the water from the kettles into the tub, but Xena stopped her, taking the heavy load and pouring it herself. The girl pointed out the case of soaps, oils, and strigils, the rack of towels, and the barrels of cold water should they need it, and left them alone to bathe. 

"This is almost as fancy as anything you'd find in Athens," marvelled Gabrielle as she stripped off her clothes and sank gratefully into the steaming water. As Rillian disrobed to join her, Xena took her arm. "Let me look at that wound. I want to make sure it's all right." 

Gabrielle looked down at Rillian's leg, and gasped in surprise. "Look, Xena, it's almost gone. There's hardly even a scar." 

Xena bent down to look more closely, but Rillian eluded her and sank into the water. "I heal quickly. And it really looked much worse than it was." 

Xena looked as her for a moment. "I guess it must have. Either that, or you have your own god of healing hidden in that kit of yours." 

Rillian laughed. "Now what god would let me carry it around in my gear, like a spare sock? Stop fussing over me and get out of that armour and into the water before it cools." 

Xena obliged, and after some friendly splashing and washing of backs, and combing of long wet hair, all three were clean and relaxed, ready for the long promised sleep in comfortable beds. Delighted to be warm, and comforted by the gentle buoyancy of the water, Gabrielle stretched out in the tub, resting her head on the broad raised shelf that encircled it. Lying back with her eyes closed, her body covered by the still warm water, she let the heat seep into their bones. Slowly her mind began to drift away from the concerns around her. Rillian glanced at Xena, and whispered, "I think she's falling asleep." 

Gabrielle, vaguely aware that her name had been mentioned, muttered softly. 

Xena smiled. "She's just drifting. I'll wake her up before I head to bed myself. Unless she wakes up by herself when the water cools down." 

Rillian nodded, then quietly slipped out of the tub and, swiftly pulling on her clothes, left the two of them alone. Xena lay in the warm water beside her, propped up on one elbow, watching silently as Gabrielle hovered in the twilight between waking and sleeping. She's so beautiful, Xena thought to herself. So open, so vulnerable. It would be so easy to seduce her now. To start with the lightest of touches, fingertips and feather kisses. I wonder what she looks like, flushed with passion. What she sounds like, tastes like... as she imagined the possibilities, her own breath grew ragged, and she felt desire building in her belly, sweeping upwards through her like a wave, sending her heart racing. Her mouth seemed unaccountably dry, and her nipples ached. 

Beside her, Gabrielle stirred and began to murmur again. Xena leaned a little closer to listen. "This seems almost like the Elysian fields. The water's so comfortable, I could just sleep here." 

Xena swallowed, trying to control her voice. "Do you want more hot water, then, or do you intend to get up and go to bed?" 

Gabrielle opened her eyes and turned her head, to see Xena lying half on her side with her head, shoulder, and part of a rounded breast above the waterline, looking at her with a strange intensity she had never quite seen before. "Xena, what's wrong?" 

What's wrong, she wants to know. Oh gods, should I tell her? Do I dare? "What do you think, about what Rillian said?" 

Gabrielle furrowed her brow, running through all the things that Rillian had said in her mind. "You mean about grasping things when you can?" 

"About grasping love when you can." 

Gabrielle lay in silence for a moment, hardly knowing how to answer her. "Love takes two," she said at last, carefully. 

"Like you and Perdicas." 

"Maybe. I don't know. I'm not exactly an expert on the subject." Her eyes opened wide as Xena glided closer to her, raising her sleek muscled body just slightly, almost but not quite leaning over her. Her eyes followed the droplets of water running down the curve of her fully exposed and perfect breast, gathering tremulously on one ruby nipple before falling free. She swallowed. 

Xena's voice was low, husky. "Neither am I." Gabrielle could feel Xena's breath against her cheek. "Could you love again, Gabrielle?" 

"What?" 

"After Perdicas. Could you ever love again?" 

Gabrielle's head was spinning from the heat in the air, the pounding of her heart, the sight and sound and sharp fragrance of Xena filling her senses to overflowing. Her body seemed on fire, her lungs paralysed. "I, I, I guess so. I don't know." She sat up quickly, cupping her head in her hands. 

Xena drew back. "Gabrielle, what's wrong?" 

"I don't know," she quavered. "Everything is spinning around, and I can hardly breathe. My head feels so light." 

Xena jumped out of the water, and knelt behind the bard, sliding her arms under Gabrielle's arms and lifting her gently out of the water. "Lie down here, on the ledge. Don't try to move," she said as she leapt to her feet and ran to one side of the room, where the water barrels stood. She grabbed a bucket and filled it with cold water, snatched a towel from the shelves above and dropped moistened before hastening back to Gabrielle. She wrung out the towel, now cool from the water, and kneeling beside the prostrate bard, dabbed at Gabrielle's face and neck. 

"How do you feel now?" she asked after a few moments. 

"Better. Not so funny." Gabrielle said, her voice still shaky. 

"Good. Just relax for a little while, while I get you cooled down a bit. Then I'll help you to your room." Xena began to rub Gabrielle's body gently with the towel, pausing every few minutes to dip it in the bucket at her side. 

"What happened?" 

"You almost fainted. At least that's what it looked like. Probably from exhaustion and then this heat." She sponged Gabrielle's face and neck with cold water once more. "I think we've been in here too long. Do you think you can stand, now, if I help you?" 

"I think so." 

"Good. Let me get dressed, and gather up your things. There's some robes here, you can wear one of them to your room." Xena stood, and dressed quickly, then carefully urged Gabrielle to her feet before wrapping her in a soft homespun robe. With Gabrielle's clothes bundled in one arm, and Gabrielle herself supported on the other, Xena led her back into the inn, and up the back stairs to the small room Gabrielle had claimed earlier that evening. With tender care, she settled her into the narrow bed, and arranged the blankets carefully over her. As Gabrielle's eyes closed, she stroked her forehead lightly, and then left her sleeping in the quiet darkness. 

Once Xena had closed the door to Gabrielle's room, she stood rock still for a moment in the hall, silently cursing herself in every language she had ever known or heard. What a perfect plan for a seduction, she fumed. Make your lover sick enough to pass out, and then move in for the kill. How could she have even considered seducing Gabrielle, even for one minute? She would not lose control that way again. 

Suddenly, she turned, hearing footsteps on the stairs at the end of the hall. It was Rillian, coming up from the common room. Her eyes fell on Xena, standing there in the hall, with surprise. "Where's Gabrielle?" 

"Asleep. She spent too much time in the water, and started feeling dizzy. I just put her to bed." 

"Oh. Well, I think I'll get some sleep myself," she replied, opening the door to her room. "I'll see you in the morning." 

"Right. Sleep well". 

With a final glance at the door of Gabrielle's room, Xena turned away and sought out her own bed. Despite the warmth and comfort, sleep was slow in coming. Images of Gabrielle danced before her eyes, taunting her with sweetness and vitality, until at last she slept. 

A sudden rapping at her door brought her fully awake. It was still dark outside, though the pale light of the moon shone in through her window. The rapping sound was repeated, with some urgency. "Please, Lady Xena. Wake up, please." It was the voice of the serving girl for the evening before. 

Xena jumped out of bed, grabbed her undershift and pulled it on, and reached for the door. The young girl rushed into her room, clearly agitated, her voice unsteady. "Please, you have to help me. There's no one else. And they say you did it before." 

"Did what before?" Xena grabbed the girl by her shoulders, and looked her in the eyes. "Calm down. Take a deep breath." The girl obeyed wordlessly. "All right. Therese, isn't it?" She nodded. "Good. Slowly, tell me what's wrong. Start from the beginning." 

"It's my brother. Please save my brother." 

"What's wrong with your brother?" 

"The sacrifice. He's gone out to the rock. You have to save him." 

"What are you talking about? The elders told me they would send no sacrifices for at least a day. And what does your brother have to do with the sacrifice?" 

"There's already been a sacrifice. Today. They send her out before you got here. My brother went after her. He left me a note. He went to try and kill the creature, to save her. They were going to be married, before the choice fell to her. But he's never fought anything, the creature will kill them both. Please, Xena," the girl wailed. "Please save my brother."


	7. Chapter 7

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

### Chapter Seven

Still listening to the frantic girl, Xena donned her armour and gathered her weapons, finding her belongings and packing them by the light of the moon which streamed in the window. "What's your brother's name?" she asked. "And the girl's name, too?"

"Leonides, and Chloe. You will save them? Please?" The girl seemed on the verge of collapse. 

"How long have they been out there?" 

"The elders took Chloe out to the rock around midday. I don't know when Leo went out ... he was still home when I came to work this evening, but after work, when I went home, he was gone. He'd left me a note, that he'd gone to save Chloe.. or die with her." 

Xena nodded. "I'll do my best, Therese... If they're still alive when I get there, I'll try to save them both. Now you go home -and don't tell the elders what you've told me. I don't want to have to fight them as well as the monster." 

"No. I won't tell anyone. Just... " 

Xena patted the girl on the shoulder. "I know, Therese. I'll do my best." She grinned. "And my best is very good. Now go." As she said this, Xena pushed the girl towards the door and opened it. After checking that no one was near, she gestured to the girl to be silent, and stepped into the hall. From the corner of her eye she saw the girl flee down the back steps, as she turned towards Gabrielle's room. Quietly she eased the door open and slipped inside. 

Gabrielle was sleeping soundly, one arm cradling her head, the other thrust beneath her pillow, her hair spilling across the bedding, her breathing soft and steady. Almost as though she sensed Xena's approach, she rolled onto her back, though her eyes remained closed and her breathing even. 

Despite the terrible urgency of her errand, Xena could not help but hold motionless for a second, struck yet again by the innocence, the vulnerability, that co-existed with the strength and beauty in her beloved's face. How rare it was to see such qualities mingled, how paramount the need to protect the bearer of those qualities from every danger - even those she posed herself, as she had done the night before. 

"Gabrielle," she whispered, stepping forward to shake the sleeping bard. "Wake up. It's urgent. We have to leave at once." 

"Wha..." Gabrielle murmured, batting one hand at her shoulder in a futile attempt to end the shaking. 

"C'mon. Wake up." Xena reached down to grab Gabrielle's other shoulder, and firmly pulled her into a sitting position. Her eyes opened. 

"Xena! What..." 

Xena crouched down and looked into Gabrielle's face meeting her sleep-clouded gaze eye to eye. Her piercing blue eyes captured Gabrielle's, willing her to wake. "There's a sacrifice at the rock. We have to leave at once, if there's any chance of saving the girl. Now get dressed, while I wake Rillian. I'll be right back for you." 

Seeing full consciousness and a horrified awareness steal across the other woman's face, Xena nodded grimly and sprang towards the door. As she slipped into the corridor once more, she heard the sounds of movement behind her, as Gabrielle rose from the bed and readied herself. There was still no sight or sound of anyone else stirring nearby. She rapped lightly at Rillian's door. "It's Xena," she whispered. 

"Come," came the muffled response. Once inside, she saw the dark form of the foreign bard outlined against the plaster of the wall, and the rough sheets of the bed she sat on, her legs coiled and ready to spring, her axe already at hand. Xena grinned. 

"No taking you by surprise, I see." 

"What's the problem?" 

"The maid just woke me. Seems the elders have already sent a sacrifice to the rock, and didn't bother to tell me. And the girl's intended is out there as well, ready to defend his love or die trying." 

Rillian nodded. "I'll get ready," she said, standing and reaching for her clothes. "How's Gabrielle?" 

Xena shrugged. "I woke her first. She was moving when I left. I'll go make sure she's all right to travel. Meet you in the stables?" 

"Three on one horse?" Rillian questioned. 

"I'll figure something out," Xena replied as she turned to the door. "Timon always used to keep his horse here. Maybe we'll borrow it." Through the darkness, Rillian could almost hear Xena's ironic smile. 

Once back in Gabrielle's room, Xena was relieved to see the young woman moving normally, as she dressed and packed her belongings. There seemed to be no sign of the sudden weakness that had overcome her the night before. "How are you feeling?" 

"Who, me? Fine... well, worried, and I'm not really awake yet, but basically fine, all things..." 

Xena cut her off. "Do you remember fainting last night?" 

"Uh... sort of." Her voice took on an unusual note, one that Xena could not interpret. Gabrielle bent over her shoulderbag, checking its contents, her face shrouded by her hair. "I think it was just the heat in the bath-house... and the humidity, too. They say that heat and humidity is a really bad combination. But I feel much better now." She straightened up, hoisting the bag to her shoulder. "I'm ready. Let's go." 

Xena looked searchingly at her for a moment, alert for any sign of illness. Gabrielle stared unflinchingly back at her. Finally Xena smiled. "Right. Rillian's down at the stables waiting for us." 

Quietly the two crept down the back stairs to the rear entranceway. On one hand were the corridors that led to the kitchen and the common room, on the other, the doorway out into the back courtyard and the stables. Carefully Xena opened the door. The courtyard was empty. Gesturing to Gabrielle, she stepped into the yard, and ran across the yard, Gabrielle on her heels. The stable door was ajar, and a dim light issued out through the cracks. Slipping inside, they saw Rillian saddling Argo by the light of a solitary lantern. 

"Thanks," said Xena, as she looked carefully at the other three horses inside the stable. 

Gabrielle gasped. "You're not going to steal one of these horses, are you?" 

Xena shook her head. "One of these is Timon's horse," she said, then gave a quick snort of recognition, as she opened the door to the stall of a sturdy grey gelding. "This one, in fact." She turned to Rillian. "You can ride, can't you?" 

Rillian smiled. "Well enough. It's been a while, but I think it will come back to me." 

"Good." Quickly Xena gathered the horse's tack from the pegs on the walls, and began to saddle and bridle the quivering animal. 

Gabrielle spoke behind her. "How do you know that's Timon's horse?" 

"Because I gave it to him, last time I was here. His own was killed in the search for the creature's nest. Rockfall accident. We had extra mounts, so I made it up to him." She pulled the saddlestraps tight. 

"But if it's his horse now..." 

"I'm borrowing it. I'll bring it back, when we're finished." Clucking softly to the horse, she led him out of his stall. Rillian was there, to take the horse's lead from her. "His name's Castor." Xena went to Argo, checked her tack, and fastened her saddlebags, then led the horse out to the stable door. 

"We'll never get the horses out of town without making a sound, so we may as well just mount up and ride for it," Rillian observed. 

Xena nodded in agreement. "If we get separated, cross the bridge, and follow the path along the river towards the mountains. It leads past the sacrificial rock. The girl's name is Chloe, the boy's name is Leonidas. His sister Therese sent us. Gabrielle, douse that lantern." 

Once the light was out, Xena opened the stable door wide, and led Argo out. Rillian followed with Castor. Gabrielle followed behind them, and pushed the great door shut while Rillian and Xena mounted. Dropping the heavy wooden beam that held the door shut into its place, Gabrielle ran to Argo's side and reached up for the hand Xena held out to her. Gritting her teeth, she let Xena's strength and her own momentum swing her up into place behind the warrior, and quickly settled in, grasping Xena tightly around the waist. "Hang on, Gabrielle," Xena whispered, and, nodding to Rillian, urged Argo into a run. 

Across the stableyard and out into the main square they raced side by side towards the main bridge, dark figures on pale mounts in the silvery moonlight. Behind them, they could hear a few confused shouts, and the sound of windows flung open, but nothing that suggested an immediate pursuit. Once clear of the town, Xena took the lead, riding at a gallop along the well marked path, with Gabrielle clinging to her back, and Rillian on Castor keeping pace just behind her. 

As the minutes grew longer, and the rocking motion of the horse in full gallop began to overwhelm the adrenalin that had sustained her during the initial moments of the ride, Gabrielle felt her unease growing. She had never really become accustomed to riding Argo like this, it was so different from her memories of her pony, so long ago. The pony had never stood so far off the ground, or moved with such jolting speed. 

She clenched her eyes shut, and concentrated on the one unmoving reality she had in this universe of haste - Xena, solid and secure in front of her. She leaned into Xena's back, resting her cheek against the supple leather of her battle garb. Unsought and unbidden, the image of Xena as she had been the night before took form in her mind's eye. For one giddy moment, she had thought that Xena was about to touch her, as a lover touches her beloved. And perhaps she had been. Gabrielle could still remember the sudden unbearable burst of sensation that had flooded through her at that moment. She had felt suspended between the earth and the sky, unable to move, to breathe, every inch on fire with feelings she had never known before, as though some giant burning hand had reached into her body and turned her inside out. Nothing had ever moved her so before. 

And then like an idiot, like a skittish virgin, she'd started to faint. And now she might never know if she had seen desire glowing in Xena's eyes, or only imagined it. She concentrated on bringing back to her memory every nuance of those dizzying moments. She had been lying, eyes closed, enjoying the sensuous warmth of the water on her skin. Xena had started to talk about grasping love, had talked about Perdicas, had asked her if she could ever love again, had transfixed her with the ferocious intensity of her eyes, and then she had been overcome by the wave of yearning that had enveloped her. Why had Xena spoken so? She rarely spoke of Perdicas, probably because she hoped to spare her friend the pain of unexpected memory. Perhaps she was only trying to see if Gabrielle was truly finished mourning, ready to move on. What reason did she have for thinking that Xena might be asking if she were ready to move on with her? Gods above, perhaps she was only wondering if she herself was ready to move on after the death of Marcus. Gabrielle had always felt that Xena's feelings for the lover now free to wander the Elysian Fields had been much stronger than she had ever admitted. 

Right, that was the far more likely explanation. How could she have thought that Xena's eyes had burned for her? How thankful she was, to whatever god had blinded the warrior's usual keen observation, that Xena had blamed her collapse on the heat, and her fatigue. She had no idea of the real reason behind the swoon, and as long as Gabrielle could keep her mind off such foolish ideas, Xena would never have another chance to discover the deepest, sweetest, most agonising secret of her heart. 

Suddenly, shouts, screams and cries, some that had never issued from any human throat, but so faint as to barely be heard, broke into her reverie. She opened her eyes, to see that the cold, pale light of early morning had struggled over the mountain peaks to the east, and surrounded them as they raced across the grasslands. She swallowed and hung on more tightly as Xena urged Argo to the limits of the horse's speed and endurance. Rillian still kept pace beside them on the grey. Carefully shifting her position, she peered around Xena's hunched frame. 

Ahead of them, thrust up out of the earth like a giant spearhead, stark grey against the yellow-green of the grasses and the blue-green of the line of ragged trees that marked the edge of the forest not far behind it, was a huge spire of rock, five or six times a man's height. Roughly diamond shaped, it was greater around than two grown men could reach where it broke free from the soil, broadened out to almost twice that width at a third of its height above ground, then it narrowed sharply, almost to a point. Bound loosely to the spire, above the widest point, was the frantic, struggling form of a young woman, dressed in flowing white robes, her golden hair unbound. 

On the ground not far from the spire, a young man crouched in the grass, half behind, half beneath a great round antique shield of bronze he held like a steeply slanted roof between himself and the creature which soared and swooped around him. In one hand he held a sword, slashing out awkwardly at the beast whenever he heard or felt it dive toward him. Blood streamed from a dozen shallow wounds on his unprotected arm and shoulder. 

As they raced towards the embattled youth, the creature broke off its attack, and with a feral screech, swerved towards its favoured prey, tethered helplessly to the rock nearby. Her screams alerted him to its retreat, and he stood, setting the shield aside and shouting first at the maiden to be still and silent, and then defiantly at the monster itself, waving his good arm wildly in the air to divert it from its target and draw it back to focus its fangs and talons upon him instead. Without flinching he held his ground until the last moment, then ducked down behind the shield once more and struck out blindly at his foe, landing a glancing blow that scarcely touched the creature at all. 

"Gods, the lad has courage," Xena shouted to Rillian as they drew ever nearer, willing the young warrior to hold the creature at bay until they could get within range. She looked over her shoulder at Gabrielle clinging on behind her. "Run for the girl, get her down from that rock, and take shelter. Leave the rest to us." Gabrielle was only too glad to voice her agreement. 

Now they were almost there. Reining Argo off towards the spire, Xena stood in the stirrups and vaulted from her back, slicing through the air as she cut across the sounds of battle with her warcry. Drawing sword in mid air, she slashed out at the monster's broad wing as she landed beside the crouched figure of the Leonidas. An instant later Rillian, still mounted, pulled up to strike from the lad's other side, swinging her axe at the creature's tail as it passed overhead. 

Gabrielle meanwhile had lunged forward on the saddle, grabbing both the pommel and the reins, and managed to stay on Argo's back until she could bring the warhorse to a halt at the foot of the spire. Grabbing both her staff and Xena's spare dagger from the saddlebags, she slid to the ground and searched for a way up the side of the great rock. Almost at once her eyes fell upon a rope ladder dangling down its side. She glanced towards the fighting, and saw the beast diving again towards the three fighters. Both Xena and Rillian seemed to be fighting confidently, maneuvering easily around the young man still crouched on the ground. As Xena landed another blow to the creature's torn wing, she forced herself to turn back to her task, and swarmed up the ropes towards the girl. As she climbed, she could see that knotted ladders and ropes were hung all around the lower half of the rock. Finally she could see that she was level with the bound girl. She reached over and grabbed the rigging that wound around the rock, stepping gingerly off the ladder. Carefully she inched her way around the rock until she was beside the girl. "Chloe?" 

"Who are you? What are you doing?" The terrified girl's voice rose towards a scream. Gabrielle clapped her hand over Chloe's mouth. 

"Shhh. Don't draw that thing's attention over here. I'm going to cut you free, and then we'll climb down and hide 'til they drive the Wingclaw away. Nod if you understand me." 

The girl nodded. Gabrielle lowered her hand, then quickly covered the girl's mouth once more as she drew in a deep breath as if to scream again. "Don't talk. Understand?" The girl nodded, hesitantly. "Promise to be quiet?" Another nod. "All right." Carefully Gabrielle withdrew her hand once more. This time the girl remained quiet. 

Gabrielle carefully examined the girl's bonds. Unless there was some secret mechanism she could not see, the girl's only support was the weathered ledge of rock on which she stood, and she was held in place only by one length of rope, tied around each wrist and stretched around behind her, encircling the rock spire. Gabrielle grabbed one of the ropes hanging nearby and pressed it into Chloe's hand. "Grab onto this. If you slip when I cut you loose, I'll try to hold you, but if I can't, just hang onto this rope, all right?" She felt, rather than saw the girl's nod. Carefully, she twisted the ropes around her lower body to anchor herself and began to saw away at the thick rope. 

As she had expected, the girl slumped and began to fall the minute the rope gave way. Gabrielle leaned out and grabbed the girl around the waist, pulling her back against the rock. "I've got you," she said. "Now turn towards me, and keep turning, so you face the rock." Slowly, guided by Gabrielle, the girl did so. "Good girl," she whispered. Slowly, she shifted back towards the ladder, moving in slow increments, making sure she was always anchored by the ropes to the rock before urging the girl to move towards her, always keeping her grip on the trembling girl. Finally they reached the ladder. Making certain that Chloe was holding firmly onto both sides, and that her footing on the rungs was secure, Gabrielle began to slide carefully down one side of the rope ladder, watching all the while to see that Chloe was climbing down as well, checking her footing, keeping her from falling. At last they reached the ground. 

During all of this time, Gabrielle had been trying to think of any safe place she might have seen nearby where she and the girl could hide, and had realised at last that there was no better hiding place within reach than at the narrowed base of the spire itself. The trees would be safer, but Chloe was in no condition to run that far, and she didn't think either of them would be able to mount Argo and ride to safety. She pushed the girl to the ground, and motioned for her to press herself tightly against the rock. Then, remembering Xena's actions during the attack in the mountains, she reached for Argo, standing patiently, if nervously, where she had left her, and positioned the horse as best she could under the wider portion of the rock, and almost on top of the girl. "Relax," she whispered to Chloe. "Argo won't hurt you, and she'll help keep the monster away from both of us, if it comes back this way." 

Then Gabrielle herself crouched down, underneath the bulging slope of the rock, beneath the shelter of Argo's arching neck. From where she knelt, she could see the battle against the winged creature. 

Rillian and Xena continued to harry the beast from horseback and afoot, slashing and chopping at the wings, legs and tail as they creature made pass after pass over them. They had driven it some distance away from the brave young defender, who had now crept out from behind his shield and watched the fray. Suddenly, he dropped the shield and, with a loud yell, holding his sword straight out before him, he ran toward the diving beast, head on, clearly hoping for a mortal strike. Cursing, Rillian drove her horse across his path, fouling the beast's approach as she struck with her axe, ripping the beast's wing once more. As she did so, Xena leapt through the air, knocking the lad's sword from his hand, and throwing him to the ground. 

He roared in disappointment and anger, striking out at her. She struck him again, rolling him onto his back and crouching over him. He grabbed for her throat, but Xena caught his arm in mid thrust and held it there. Unseen behind her the beast prepared for another dive. Watching in horror, Gabrielle rose to her feet, narrowly avoiding Argo's head as a warning shout tore its way out of her lungs. Rillian whirled on the grey horse, and rode towards the woman and man frozen in their struggle, axe hand raised to land an intercepting blow, knowing that she would be too late to guard Xena's back, yet throwing herself towards her anyway. 

Xena turned her head to see the great head approaching, its maw wide, its fangs gleaming row on row. She was still for an instant, almost as if waiting for something. Suddenly she vaulted backwards, touching down for a second with her hands, then tucked her legs in tightly and rolled backwards towards the oncoming beast. Gaining momentum, she unfolded to her full extension as her shoulders met the ground, and drove her booted heels with all the strength she possessed into the soft underthroat of the beast. The force of the blow drove its head up sharply, marring the angle of its dive and keeping it out of striking range of the defenceless Leonides. Quickly she dropped her legs and rolled out of the way of the creature's strong legs and talons, unsheathing her dagger and slashing at them as she slipped out of harm's way. Behind her, the creature roared in pain as Rillian chopped again at its torn wings. 

Shrieking in frustration, the beast rose higher and higher into the sky, before turning towards the mountains in flight. Xena rolled onto her knees, looking up and watching it for just long enough to see that it had indeed fled the battle, and then rose to her feet, and held out her hand to the pale and blood-streaked young man in the dust at her feet. "Leonides, I presume?" 

He lay there, looking up at her. His response was angry, and bitter. "I could have killed it. You stopped me from killing it." 

She sat on her heels beside him. "If you were very lucky, you might have wounded it badly. More likely, it would have killed you. Something your young lady would not have wanted to see, I'm sure." 

"But it will be back." 

"I certainly hope so. Though if we've scared it too badly, it might not be, which will make things harder for me." 

He looked at her in bewilderment. "What are you talking about? Why do you want it to come back?" 

"I have my reasons. And now is not the time to discuss them. We need to see to Chloe, and set up some sort of defensible shelter nearby." She paused for a moment. "And bind up those cuts of yours. You're very brave, but very foolish. If you weren't so lucky, you'd probably be dead." She rose to her full height, and this time he took her extended hand and scrambled to his feet beside her. As she turned around to look for Rillian, she saw the woman, still seated on the grey, her strange seeing glass held up to her eye. "Did you see where it went?" 

Rillian lowered the glass, and returned it to her beltpouch. "It's a better line of sight from here than it was in the mountains. I've got a good idea of where to start from." 

Xena smiled. "Then this was worth it. C'mon, lad, let's go see how the others are." 

Rillian dismounted, and led the labouring horse toward the rock spire. Gabrielle, had gotten the girl to her feet, and as the three fighters drew near, she began to take slow, halting steps towards the wounded young man. "Leonides! You're hurt!" 

Rather than answer Chloe with words, Leonides ran to her instead, sweeping her into his arms and holding her close. She began to sob against his chest, and he soothed her, stroking her head and shoulders, murmuring softly to her. 

Xena turned to Gabrielle. "She's not hurt?" 

"Not a scratch. Just tired and frightened. So what do we do now?" 

Xena looked past the rock, towards the trees. "Let's get under some cover, set up camp, and see what happens next."


	8. Chapter 8

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

### Chapter Eight

The next few hours were busy ones. It took some time for Xena to find a campsite suitable to her plans - thickly covered enough to protect them from air attack and conceal them from prying eyes, should anyone come to the rock in search of them, yet close enough that they could keep watch on the sacrificial site, and almost as important, near a small spring. In the end, they had to gather extra greenery from neighbouring sites and add it to the cover already in the place she had chosen, but at last she pronounced it acceptable. After they had been watered and rubbed down after their exertions, the horses were tethered at the far side of the thicket, deeper into the forest. Inside the thicket, Gabrielle and Rillian made beds from boughs and armfuls of grass, while Xena gathered wood for a fire, and carefully dug a firepit into the forest sod, and lined it with stones. Then, still setting aside the young man's insistent questions, she tended to Leonides' wounds, cleaning and binding each cut carefully.

Leonides leaned back against the tree trunk at his back, his left arm protectively encircling the frail form of Chloe, who lay half across his lap, half on the soft boughs beneath them both. His right arm was swathed from wrist to shoulder in bandages torn from the ceremonial robes she had worn to what both had feared would be her death. His eyes followed every movement made by the three women moving almost soundlessly through the thicket in which they rested, while Chloe's eyes were closed in sleep. 

At the moment, Rillian and Gabrielle were padding the piles of boughs they had built around the inner hollow of the thicket as couches or beds with bundles of grasses and leaves, and covering them with blankets. Xena sat on a hummock beside him, putting away the herbs she had rubbed into paste and smeared on his wounds before binding them. But instead of closing up her healing kit, she pulled another small pouch and a battered metal cup from her saddlebags, and started crumbling yet more herbs into a fine powder between her fingers. 

"What's this for?" Leonides asked warily. 

"Chloe. She's been through quite a lot: fear, cold, exhaustion. This'll help her get her strength back." Xena dipped the cup into the pot of water Gabrielle had brought for her, and mixed in the powdered herbs. "It's better hot, but I don't want to light a fire this close to that rock. Someone might come out to check on the sacrifice, and spot us." She handed the cup to him. "Wake her up, get her to drink it all." 

"Why are you doing this?" He took the cup from her, but did not wake the sleeping girl. 

"Why am I doing what?" Xena countered, as she slipped her herb pouch back into her saddlebags. 

"All of this. Fighting the monster. Helping Chloe and me." 

A cheerful voice sailed over Xena's shoulder as Gabrielle joined them. "Because she's Xena. That's what she does." Gabrielle leaned across to spread one of Rillian's blankets over Chloe before sitting down at Xena's side. "Even when somebody does something stupid and almost gets her killed." 

"And that's really what sets the heroes apart from the warriors," Rillian added as she settled in on one of the makeshift beds on Xena's other side. 

Leonides looked first at Gabrielle, then at Rillian, before looking straight ahead and meeting Xena's eyes. "You really are the Warrior Princess, then?" 

"Some people call me that," Xena answered. "Now wake Chloe up, and make her drink that - or I will." 

Leonides glared at the three women, then gently began to stroke Chloe's hair and face, murmuring softly to her. As her eyelids began to flutter, he slowly helped her rise to a sitting position beside him, her head still resting on his unhurt shoulder. "Chloe, Xena wants you to drink this," he said, holding the cup to her lips. 

The girl looked first at Xena, who stared impassively back at her. Her eyes flickered to Gabrielle, who smiled at her and nodded. "Xena knows more about healing than almost anyone I know. If she says it'll help you, it will." Gabrielle turned to look at Xena, and shook her head at the grim expression on her face. "I know her bedside manner isn't always the best, but you can trust her." Xena allowed the smallest of smiles to touch the corners of her mouth. "See," Gabrielle said triumphantly. "She can be friendly if she really tries." 

Chloe smiled timidly back, and lifting her own hands to the cup Leonides still held to her lips, drank the herbs and water. 

Leonides handed the cup back to Xena. His eyes were challenging, his voice tinged with anger. "So if you really are the Warrior Princess, then why did you let that monster get away? You and your friend are both great warriors. That's obvious. Together we could have killed it." The young man's voice grew sullen. "It'll only come back again, and Chloe, or someone else, will have to die." 

"I killed this thing once before, and it came back then - or hadn't you heard?" 

"Yes, but..." 

"But nothing. Just killing it isn't enough." Tersely, Xena explained her theories about the creature's life cycle, and the importance of finding its lair before killing it. 

It took some time to tell her tale, and to counter much argument over the old stories about the nature of the beast that years of repetition in the villages had turned to fact in the minds of the harbourfolk. At last a glimmer of understanding began to grow in his face. He looked at Xena and Rillian. "So you stopped me from killing it because you still don't know where it laid its eggs." 

Xena nodded. Rillian spoke for both of them. "That, and the fact that the beast would have split your guts wide open long before you hit anything vital with that sword of yours. You have courage enough, but that's not all you need." 

"There's no one to learn swordfighting from, around here," the young man bristled at them. 

"Skill isn't everything, either," Xena replied. 

"You have to think, too," added Gabrielle. "If you listen to the tales of the really great heroes, you hear just as much about their cunning as you do about their strength, or skill, or courage." She smiled, warming to her subject. "You have to watch carefully, study your opponent, be aware of everything around you, and how it can be used for you or against you, you have to plan..." 

Rillian coughed. "Speaking of planning..." 

"Oh. Right. Well, if you really want to know, I can tell you all that some other time." Gabrielle turned to Xena. "So where do we go from here?" 

Xena looked at Leonides. "Who knows that you came here?" 

"No one, except my sister..." 

"And I warned her not to speak to anyone. Good. The first thing we need to do is make the elders think the sacrifice has been accepted. That should keep them from sending anyone else for a while. That's where you come in, Leonides." 

"How?" 

"I want you to go back to the village and tell everyone that you spend the night mourning in the woods, after coming here and finding that Chloe was taken by the beast. Can you do that?" 

"Yes." Unconsciously, he held the girl more closely to him. 

"Xena," Chloe spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. 

"What is it Chloe?" Leonides looked down protectively at the girl in his arms. "Are you feeling tired? Cold? Want to lie down?" 

"No, I'm fine." She smiled up at him. "You keep me warm enough. But I had a thought. Maybe it's not any good, but..." 

Before Leonides could speak, Gabrielle leaned forward. "What is it, Chloe?" 

"Well... Xena said that she wants to track the monster, but she doesn't know the mountains very well. And there aren't very many of us to search. Right?" She stopped, and looked around at the nodding faces of the three women. She turned to look up at Leonides. "Leo, there must be at least a dozen of our friends who would be willing to stand up to the elders, and help Xena, if they knew all of this. How many times have we all talked about what it would be like if there were no more curse? You have to go back to the village, and bring them here to listen to Xena." 

Leonides looked down at Chloe with a delight that held a touch of awe. "I'll never understand where you get such brilliant ideas. You're right again. They'll all want to help." 

Chloe looked back at the three women. "What do you think, Xena? Would that be any help to you?" 

Xena smiled. "I think it might..." 

"Great!" exclaimed Leonides. "I'll go right away..." he looked down suddenly, stricken with concern for Chloe. "But will you be all right, my love?" 

"I'll be fine, Leo." Chloe smiled up into the worried face of her betrothed. "These women saved our lives - they won't let anyone harm me while you're away." 

"Don't worry about Chloe. I'll take care of her while you're gone," Gabrielle reassured him. 

Rillian spoke up quickly before he could make a move. "But I think we need a little more planning first, right Xena?" 

"Right." Xena shot a disbelieving glance at her two companions, before turning towards Chloe and Leonidas. "First, I think we should decide in advance just who you're going to talk to about this. As Chloe said, we need people who know the mountains, and are good climbers. Chloe, why don't you tell me about your friends one by one, and we'll draw up a list." 

After some discussion, the plan to recruit some of the village youth as trackers took shape. Leonides would go to the fields, where most of their friends would be at work. Under the guise of sharing his sorrow at the loss of Chloe, he would contact the most skilled and reliable of their friends, and ask them to meet him that evening at the rock spire. There, Xena would tell them what she hoped to do, and ask for their help. Once every detail and potential pitfall that Leonides might encounter had been raised, usually by Chloe, then discussed and prepared for, the young man spent a few last moments fussing tenderly over his beloved, and then set off with a bold swagger through the woods towards the head of the river valley where the fields began. Chloe watched him leave, luminous eyes full of tenderness and love, and the other three women watched her as she stared after him. 

At length, the slight blonde girl lowered her gaze to meet that of the other women. She smiled. "You don't think very much of Leo, do you?" 

Gabrielle spluttered for a moment, searching for a gentle way of expressing her thoughts. "He doesn't seem to think too far ahead." 

"No, he doesn't," she agreed. "But he doesn't have to, because I can. What he is, is brave, and gentle, and honest, and hard-working, and totally faithful. All in all, I'm getting rather a much better husband than most. Oh, he'd never do for one of you, but then, neither would I." 

"You're not so timid and helpless as you look, are you?" Xena smiled. 

"Oh, yes, I am, as a matter of fact." Chloe pulled the blanket closer around her. "I'm terrified of snakes, and loud noises, and all sorts of things. I'm not very strong, and I don't think I'll ever stop shivering inside every time I think of what almost happened to me. But that doesn't bother him. It makes him feel good, to protect me from the things that scare me. Even when he makes terrible mistakes, like he did this morning." 

Gabrielle looked searchingly at the girl for a moment. "And you're going to marry this man? You really love him?" 

"Of course. And he loves me, too. How could anyone marry without love?" She looked at each of them in turn. "You don't understand, any of you, do you? Leo and I are ordinary people, and we are going to live very ordinary lives together, and when we die, only our families will ever have heard of us. And that's exactly how we want it. We're not heroes, like the three of you. We don't need to be brave and strong and cunning all at once, we just need to do what we can, and be good to each other." She smiled again. "Leo and I belong together." 

"Two halves of a whole," Rillian said softly. 

Chloe nodded. "Something like that. He has the strength and the courage, and I can see the things he doesn't always understand. We complete each other." She began to yawn, covering her mouth with one bruised but still delicate hand. "I'm so sorry, but I'm getting very sleepy again." 

"That's all right," Xena said. "You need sleep." She stood up. "We'll let you rest for a while." She looked at Rillian. "I need you to show me where that thing was headed." As Rillian started to get up, Xena turned to Gabrielle as well, but before she could speak, Chloe interrupted her. 

"Please, don't all of you leave me. I don't think I could sleep if I was all alone." She turned her eyes pleadingly to Gabrielle. 

The bard looked up at Xena. "I don't mind staying here. I've got some writing I want to do, anyway." 

Xena shrugged. "Fine." She gathered Rillian in her glance, and they left together. 

Chloe turned to Gabrielle. "Thank you. I really couldn't bear to be alone right now." 

Gabrielle tilted her head to one side, and looked at the village girl, still bemused by her comments about the young man she loved so much. Chloe looked back at her. "What is it, Gabrielle?" 

"I'm not sure that I could love someone if I didn't respect them," she said finally, after a long pause to order her thoughts. "Or someone who didn't respect me," she added, thoughtfully. 

"I do respect Leo. Like I told you, there's a great deal of good in him. Just because he's not perfect, doesn't mean I can't respect and love him. You'll wait a long time if you're waiting for someone perfect." 

"Well, of course, no one's perfect, but Chloe, forgive me for saying this, but he's as thick as a brick!" 

"It doesn't matter to me. Of course, it's different for you, because brains matter to you." 

"But the way he treats you, like a child," Gabrielle continued. "How can you think he respects you?" 

"That's just how he shows me that he cares. And compared to him, big and strong as he is, I'm not much more than a child. If he wanted to be with a great strong warrior, he'd have run after my friend Xantippe. She's tall, and has lots of muscle, and likes to practice swordfighting. But that's not what he wants. He wants me. It's like your friend said, we're two halves of a whole." Chloe yawned, and began to burrow down into the nest of boughs beneath her. "Like you and Xena," she muttered, as her eyes closed. 

Gabrielle leaned forward, mouth open in astonishment, but seeing that Chloe was already half asleep, she said nothing. What was going on? Why did everyone that saw them together seem to think that she and Xena were... she closed her eyes, ignoring the images that came unbidden of Xena looking at her under lowered eyelids around a hundred nights of campfires, of Xena placing herself at risk over and over again to ensure her safety, of Xena's eyes burning into her soul. 

She opened her eyes, and reaching into her pack, pulled out quill, and ink, and parchment, and began to record the events of the morning, the battle with the Wingclaw, and the rescue of the maiden. This was her role in Xena's life, the friend, the chronicler, the helper, not the lover, the partner. She was Patrocles to Xena's Achilles... no, considering all the gossip there had been about those two, maybe that wasn't the best analogy. Although she could certainly understand Patrocles' devotion to his friend and comrade-at-arms. 

But Chloe's words would not vanish, but instead returned to echo in her mind. Two halves of a whole. She thought about it. Xena's deeds, to her words. Xena's dark past, to her own somewhat boring but inarguably innocent youth. Xena's unfathomable depths and silences, to her friendly open ways and, if she had to admit it, her occasional tendency to go on a bit too much at times. Maybe there was something to the notion, after all. If they really were two halves of a whole, then perhaps one day Xena would realise they were meant for each other, as all the warrior lovers of Xena's past had not been meant for her. Perhaps there was hope for a bard to win the heart of a warrior princess. 

Gabrielle smiled to herself and continued writing.


	9. Chapter 9

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

### Chapter Nine

The two women stood on a small rise not far from the scene of the morning's battle, looking up toward the mountains. In her hand, Xena held the small but powerful seeing-glass that Rillian had used to track the flight of the monster earlier that day. She raised it to her eye and examined the rock faces closely, looking for the landmarks the other woman had described. Satisfied that she had found the spot, Xena lowered the glass and handed it back to Rillian. "You're sure it dipped down at that notch in the far defile?" 

"As sure as I can be. If it were my call, that's where I'd start the hunt." Rillian took the glass from her and slipped it back into her beltpouch. 

Xena smiled. "Then that's where we'll start." Narrowing her eyes slightly, she turned south towards distant Thalassepolis. "Once we see what kind of help that young idiot brings back." 

Rillian chuckled warmly. "The lad's heart is all right, even if he's lacking in sense. And he loves that girl of his. With Chloe at his side, he might even make a fine man some day. And this is, after all, her idea. He'll bring us what we need." 

Xena shrugged, dropping down to sit on her heels in the thigh-high grasses which grew around and over the hillock where they stood. "Good thing one of them has a brain." She looked west, eying the sun's height above the horizon. "Still a few hours 'til sunset." 

Rillian lowered herself to the ground, stretching out with her head and shoulders braced against a rock and her long legs crossed. "May as well get comfortable - unless you want to head back and check on Gabrielle and the girl?" 

Xena looked at Rillian from the corner of her eye. "Hadn't planned on it. Gabrielle can take care of herself. But if you wanted to head back and see how they are..." The unfinished question hung in the air. 

The other woman shook her head. " No need. I agree with you. Gabrielle can take care of herself. She's really quite an amazing young woman." 

Xena did not look at Rillian. "Yes, she is," she said, her voice edged with an undefined tension. 

"The two of you are very close," Rillian continued, in a tone of deliberate neutrality. 

"Gabrielle is my friend," Xena replied in a low voice that echoed with other words more fitting but unspoken. 

"And a gifted bard, as well. Her work is very strong, for someone so young. I'm impressed, and I grew up listening to the very best. In time, she could be one of the great ones." 

"I suppose so." Xena shifted slightly, relaxing as the topic of conversation moved to something less dangerous than feelings. Gabrielle the bard was easier to talk about than Gabrielle the woman. She stretched her legs in front of her, settling down on the grassy earth. "She's always telling me her stories. Practicing on me, she calls it. They sound just as good as anything I've ever heard from a palace bard, or temple poet. But I'm hardly an expert." 

"Trust me on this. She's good. Of course, in many ways, you're making it easy for her." 

"Oh? How am I doing that? 

"Your life. Your battles. You. Your struggle to redeem yourself. Your deeds of heroism. Even if she never wrote one line about anything else, she would have a lifetime's worth of material, more than enough to make a name for herself. The Xena Chronicles." Rillian paused for a moment, then continued with a tone of utter neutrality. "Her gift could so easily be lost if she didn't have you to inspire her. Or if she had other things to distract her from her art. If she were living the life of, say, a farmer's wife." 

Xena's voice was low, her instincts roused again for some threat in Rillian's words. "She might not agree with you there." 

"She might not always have known it. She might even have tried to turn away from it. But she can't hide from herself. It's the truth. Even a naive young village girl can see that." 

"And what does that mean?" 

"Chloe said it very well, I thought. She and her stalwart young beau are ordinary people. Trouble comes, they summon up the courage to face it, but all they want to do is live ordinary lives. Not like you. Or me. Or Gabrielle. We might think, for a time, that we'd like to be ordinary, but it never lasts. We have a destiny." 

Xena looked sharply at Rillian, her eyes flashing. "You seem unusually interested in the subject of Gabrielle's destiny," she said, her voice still soft and low, but with an element of some emotion that tinged her comment with the essence of a warning. 

Rillian sat up, and met Xena's eyes, and held them with an intensity of her own. "I am no threat to you, Xena. Gabrielle belongs at your side, not mine." 

The silence between them grew, until at last Xena looked away. "That's for Gabrielle to say," she whispered. 

Rillian's next words struck like a swordthrust. "Have you ever asked her?" 

Xena rose suddenly to her feet, eyes wild, her words locked in her throat. "She's my friend," she repeated at last, simply, as if that explained it all. She continued, in a matter-of-fact tone that seemed somehow forced, "I think I'll head toward the village, see if there's any sign of Leonides and his friends. You keep watch here." She turned her back on Rillian, and began to walk away. 

"Xena, don't run from it." The warrior stopped in her tracks, but did not turn. "I have only this to say to you," Rillian continued, springing to her feet. "I am older than I seem, and I have known many things in my time. One thing that I have never seen is a friendship destroyed because one friend opened her heart fully, without demand or expectation, to the other." Xena took a halting step away from her. "You will never know for certain until you ask her, Xena." 

Xena turned around. "What do you know about it?" 

"What I see, and hear. The things you do not see or hear. The things you are afraid to see and hear." 

Xena's voice was almost a growl. "What do you know?" she repeated. 

"I know many things. What you're asking now is not mine to tell. We both know whose right it is to give you those answers. But you have to ask her." 

A flurry of emotions swept across Xena's face as she stood, facing Rillian in silence. Then her face closed into a mask, and she turned and walked away without a word. Rillian watched her walk away, towards the bluffs that overlooked the pounding sea, then sat once more in silence, eyes upon the road from Thalassepolis. 

Xena walked through the tall grasses without thought, blindly headed away from Rillian, away from the forest where Gabrielle's presence was suddenly like a blazing fire that gave heat and light for miles around, away from the village she had come here to save from a nightmare. Her feelings, so recently mastered and brought to heel, or so she had thought, were now swirling madly within her once more, freed from the iron rule she had imposed on them by Rillian's relentless prodding. She struggled to regain control. She could not risk taking action of any kind while her mind boiled so furiously with suspicion, hope and fear. Harshly she forced herself to think. 

What lay behind the veiled words Rillian had spoken, not just now, but for days now. Could it be that this stranger had seen through her defenses and spied out the deeply hidden desire within. And if she had, what was her purpose in urging Xena to reveal herself to Gabrielle. Had she seen something in Gabrielle, something Xena had once thought was there, but had explained away. Or was her purpose darker. Could she hope that by luring Xena into a declaration of love, the innocent Gabrielle might be frightened, and sent running into the shelter of another, gentler pair of arms. 

Once she had thought that Gabrielle was coming to share the love that burned within her. Once, she had seen the promise of a slow ripening passion between them, and she had been content to wait, and let time and nature take its course. And then all her hopes had been dashed to the earth, rent into pieces and ground into dust beneath the boots of a farmer turned soldier who dreamed of turning farmer once more. Xena had accepted that choice, believed it the decision of a knowing, loving heart that had turned from her. But was it possible that Gabrielle had not chosen Perdicas over her in that cursed temple, but was answering the call of some other demand than love. How could she know the truth, unless she asked. 

Fear gripped her heart. What if all her hopes, all of Rillian's insinuations, were mistaken. What if Gabrielle was bound to her only with the bonds of friendship. What if these fierce passions that had again been aroused within her were destined only to be locked away once more. 

Tears leaked from the corners of her tightly clenched eyelids, as the pain of that thought ripped through her. Yes, what if there was no love, no passion, no desire in Gabrielle's heart for her. She remembered other moments of such pain in her past. She had known rejection before, and survived. One thing she knew for certain, Gabrielle would never betray her, as others had. They were friends, and nothing could change that. Here was another truth that Rillian had made her see. It would hurt, it would be awkward for a while, but perhaps it would be easier to set the need aside, if even the secret embers of hope were dead. For she had to admit to herself that, no matter how she tried, she had never been able to root out every tendril of hope that grew in the recesses of her soul. 

No, Rillian was right. She could not keep on as she had done since the first of her hopes had been crushed. Battling the twinned hope and fear within her was starting to take its toll. She should have realised that the night before, when she had come so close to taking Gabrielle without thought, without consideration. For her own peace of mind, for the sake of their friendship, if that was all it could be, and even more for the sake of any chance of love that might exist, she had to speak. 

As she came to her decision, a wave of tranquility washed slowly over her. This was right, she could feel it. But now was not the time. There was too much to be done, and too many people to deal with. And yet, there was danger here, and it would be so ironic if, having found her way to this decision, she should meet her final enemy here in these mountains, and die with her love unspoken. There would have to be a moment, at least, when she could say something to Gabrielle. She would find a way. 

Taking a deep breath, she looked down to see the waves crashing in against the rocky shoreline below the sandy bluffs on which she stood. She smiled to herself, feeling the force of the water and the wind coursing through her. For the first time in months, she felt at one with herself, and with the world. Grinning fiercely, she drew her sword, beginning to flow through the opening motions of a practise drill with delight and abandon. Her arm moved of its own accord, thrust, low parry, lunge, high parry, block, shifting to more intricate and demanding moves as she gained speed, dancing with the wind and her sword along the high ridge of the bluffs. Without breaking her rhythm, she drew her dagger and began a double edged symphony of flashing blades, laughing out loud with the joy of it as she spun at the centre of the whirlwind of metal. An exultant ululation poured from her throat as she ended her swordplay in a twisting somersault, coming to land, feet firmly planted, blades sheathed, in utter stillness. A smile still on her lips, she walked back towards the scheduled meeting place in the golden glow of the setting sun. 

Rillian was waiting for her, lounging on the same hillock, watchful eyes keeping track of every movement on the flat plain that surrounded the sacrifice stone. Xena smiled at the other woman as she jumped to her feet and stood to face her. "You're a wise woman, Rillian." 

"I do my best," she answered, smiling in return. "We should have some company soon. Are you ready?" 

"Perfectly." Xena sat down, stretching her hand out to Rillian, who still stood beside her. "If we're going to wait, we may as well be comfortable." 

The other woman dropped gracefully down beside her. "Seems I've heard that somewhere before." 

"Could be," she said, still smiling at Rillian. "Thank you." 

"Nothing to it." 

As the sun crept below the horizon, they waited, and watched, and spoke of incidental, unimportant matters, as they sat concealed from other eyes by the thick, tall hay. At length, by the last withdrawing light of day, they saw in the distance a small band, no more than fifteen, approaching along the path that led from Thalassepolis to the huge rock that towered over the sward. Most carried weapons, some wore light pieces of makeshift or antique armour. All bore with them packs and satchels which Xena hoped would contain the supplies she had instructed Leonides to have his friends gather. Silently, Xena and Rillian watched as the troop of young men and women, Leonides at their head, halted by the rock. They milled about in some confusion, their voices carried on the evening winds to Rillian and Xena in their place of concealment. 

"Well, we're here. Where is she, Leo?" Another voice took up the questioning. "You said she'd meet us here." Still another spoke. "Yeah, where is this Xena?" 

Xena's voice rang out in the darkening dusk as she stood and walked briskly towards the knot of villagers, Rillian at her side. "Right here," she said. "Glad you could join us."


	10. Chapter 10

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

### Chapter Ten

All heads turned towards them, and a handful of torches flared up to show more clearly who addressed them from within the gathering gloom. There was a moment of silence, as the villagers compared the woman they saw before them with the Xena of legend, the Xena that some of them had glimpsed at a distance years earlier as she led her soldiers through Thalassepolis. As they did so, she examined each of them one by one with not only her eyes but her intuition, honed by years of selecting and leading men into danger. Looking in each youthful face for the marks of steadfastness, of determination, that they would need to carry out her plan, she was gratified to see the signs she sought writ in some measure on every face, hidden though they were behind the more obvious evidence of doubt and hesitation. 

"All right," she said, taking command of her small and inexperienced forces, knowing that she must confront their indecision now, or face disaster later. "Leonides has told you that I have a plan to save the people of this coast from the monster, not only for the moment, as I did once before, but forever. To do this, I need you, each and every one of you. Are you willing to follow me, to do as I ask?" 

A wordless murmur passed from one end of the group to the other. As the silence grew, a young woman, tall and dark, dressed in handed-down, ill fitting leathers, stepped forward from the pack. "Can you really do this? Will you swear to it?" 

Xena fixed the challenger with her eyes, but the woman did not retreat. Again she asked, "Can you do this? If you can, I'll follow you, I'll die for you if you ask me too, and so will the others, but I must know that it will be done." 

Xena measured the woman carefully with her eyes. Here was the key, she sensed, the natural leader of this band of friends. If she could win this battle, she would have them all. "What is your name?" Xena asked. 

"Xantippe." 

"Xantippe, there is nothing that I hold sacred enough to swear by but my own honour, but I promise you, and your friends, that it can be done, and this time I will not leave this place until it is finished." The two locked eyes for a moment more, and then Xantippe, satisfied by something she saw in the crystal depths of the warrior's eyes, nodded, and stepped back beside her friends. Some unspoken tension melted as she did so, and the dozen pairs of eyes that faced her now, held only anticipation as they waited to hear her plans. 

Swiftly, she outlined the plan. The best of the trackers to follow her and Rillian into the mountains, to find the lair, and any young, then lie in wait for the beast, killing parent and young together. The others to remain here, under Gabrielle's direction, where hidden and watchful in the forest within sight of the rock spire where their kin had died for countless years, they would cut down and spirit away any maiden brought for sacrifice by the town elders. For the first watch on the spire, she selected two young men that Chloe had described as being steady, patient, and responsible. 

"Phlebas, Memnon, there's a spot in among the trees where you can watch without being seen. Remember, no fires, no noise. If anyone comes with a victim, wait until they've gone, then cut her down. All of you watchers, look carefully at the spire before we leave. Look closely at the rope rigging, so you'll know how to climb quickly, and cut someone loose." Xena walked over to the rock, and pointed out the sharp inward curve towards its base. "Remember, if the creature comes while you're out in the open, you can take cover under this ledge. It's too big now to get at you if you press close against the rock. Don't try and fight it unless you have no other choice. Hide if possible, run if you can, fight only if you must. Is that understood?" 

Nods and murmurs of assent answered her question. "Good. Now, take your time, look over the rock, and then I'll show you where to wait." Phlebas and Memnon, accompanied by five other young men and one stocky woman who had been chosen as watchers, did as they were commanded while Xena and Rillian looked over the weapons brought by the others, who would track the creature with them. With some relief, they found most of the weapons to be sound, though some were in need of sharpening, a task that could wait until they returned to the camp in the thickets for the night. 

Seeing that the watchers had all examined the rock, Xena led her band towards a vantage point she had already prepared, and gave Phlebas and Memnon their final instructions. "You'll be relieved in the morning, and someone will come along to show you the way back to the camp. Make certain one of you stays awake at all times. Leonides tells me both of you have tended the herds overnight, so I'm guessing you know all about staying awake and watching for trouble. This is no different. Just keep your wits about you, and you'll be fine." 

With these parting words, she led the others back toward the camp, torches lit so they could see the path that at least some of them would later have to follow in darkness. 

Gabrielle and Chloe were ready for them when they arrived. With Chloe's help, Gabrielle had prepared more sleeping places among the twisted roots of the thicket and used Rillian's mysterious finely woven cloth to screen off an area in the midst of the ring of trees that formed the heart of the dense copse. There they had built a fire without being seen from outside the tangled bushes, and now sat tending the flames and waiting. At once Leonides rushed to Chloe's side, voicing his amazement at how much recovered she appeared to be, and how much she had done in their absence. Xantippe and the other villager youths followed on his heels clustered around the two young lovers, and Gabrielle as she sat beside them, making clear their universal delight in seeing Chloe alive. 

After granting her troops a space of time for their joyful reunion, Xena stepping into the circle of friends, calming the excited hubbub by her presence. As if by command, they moved back, forming a rough circle around the fire, waiting to hear what instructions their leader had for them now. Her first words were to introduce the youths to Gabrielle, paying close attention to the six who would remain to watch the rock, and mentioning the two that were already on guard. "These ones are yours, Gabrielle. I've shown them where to watch from, and what to do. Rotate the watches as you wish." She cast her eyes around the group. "Now, I want everyone who'll be in the tracking party to get ready, because we leave at dawn. Sharpen your weapons. Everyone who brought ropes and climbing gear, show it Rillian or myself to check it before you sleep. Make sure you all have your food and personal gear packed and ready. When I tell you you're ready, report to Gabrielle and she'll assign you sleeping space for the night. Now move it, the faster you get it done, the more time you'll have to sleep." 

The trackers gathered around Xena and Rillian, spreading out around them as they opened packs for inspection. Xena shot a glance in Gabrielle's direction, saw her deep in conversation with Chloe and the others who would guard the rock, while Leonides looked down devotedly at his bride-to-be. 

"Leo!" Xena called sharply to draw his attention. "You're coming with us, remember? Get over here and show me your gear." 

Placing a gentle kiss on Chloe's cheek, Leonides reluctantly followed Xena's orders. While the trackers prepared, Gabrielle quickly assigned her group a watch roster, and beds, and checked to see that they had, as Leonides had promised, brought food enough for all during the long wait while the hunter completed their task. She promised the pair scheduled to relieve the night watch that she would lead them to the watchpost, and answered all their questions about how she had rescued Chloe, and what the creature looked like, and whether Xena would be able to do what no one else had ever done. 

"Oh, yes," Gabrielle had laughed at that question. "There has never been anyone quite like Xena. I've seen her do what others would call the impossible so many times, I don't think there's anything beyond her, except of course for some things the gods alone can do. But even then, I've known the gods to turn to her for help." Seeing their startled faces, Gabrielle told them that she would be delighted to tell them the stories of how Xena had restored Ares to his godhood, and helped Hades retake the Elysian Fields from the worst fiends in Tartarus, but not tonight, there was too much to be done. Satisfied with this, the small band of friends began to talk among themselves. 

Her duties seen to, Gabrielle moved a little apart from Chloe and her friends, giving the still shaken girl the comfort of private conversation with friends. Her gaze was drawn instead towards Xena. How much she enjoyed moments like this, when unnoticed, she could sit watching Xena's every move. Xena moved with such confidant authority, with such an air of command, as she organised the hunting party. Her thoughts strayed again to Chloe's comment, that she and Xena were two halves of a whole. 

She had known from the moment they had met that somehow, Xena would complete her in ways no other person could. She had never felt that from poor Perdicas. Perhaps that was why she had kept putting off their wedding, back when she was just another simple village girl with foolish dreams of being something more. She had simply never felt whatever it was that made the other girls hurry to their wedding beds. But the moment she saw Xena, alone, taking on what had seemed like an army of men, to save her and her village, something had drawn her to this dark, mysterious warrior, pulled her along in her turbulent path like an undeniable force of nature. Perhaps she had fallen in love with her then and there, without even knowing it for what it was. 

But she had never seen any sign that Xena loved her in return. Friendship, and even a strange kind of bond that made her think sometimes that Xena needed her as some kind of talisman to keep her on this new path she had chosen, toward the redemption she so deeply desired, these had come quickly. And along with them, a frustrating protectiveness that made her sometimes want to scream if she once more heard the words, Gabrielle, wait here. Though she had to admit, that was getting less frequent, now that she had learned to fight with the staff. Yes, Xena had strong feelings for her, of that there was no question. But she did not know if one of them could ever be love. Perhaps, in time, if they truly were two halves of a whole, then love would come. At least, she could continue to hope, and in the meantime, there was companionship beyond anything she had ever had, and the sight of Xena moving like grace and strength personified through a world of lesser mortals. 

Gabrielle suddenly realised that there were at least a half dozen people crowding around her, asking where they could go to sleep. Shaking off her reverie, she hastened to settle them all, and then turned to see the small group around Chloe had gone off to their rest as well. Leonides was carefully tucking Chloe into a soft nest of grasses before settling down on a blanket beside her. Rillian was dousing the fire, and Xena checking on the horses. 

As she headed towards her own sleeping space, Xena came up beside her. She smiled up at her. "Everything ready?" 

"Looks that way. At least there's nothing more I can do." 

Gabrielle nodded her head. "I'm sure you've thought of everything. You always do." She sat down on her bedroll and started removing her boots. "You're going to finish this. I know you will. Nothing can stop you when you're this determined to do something." 

Xena sat down opposite her, on her own bed. "You always have such faith in me." 

"You've never let me down," Gabrielle answered simply, and started shrugging under her blankets. 

"Gabrielle." 

"Uhhummm?" 

"I wanted to say something to you." 

"Sure. What?" 

"I, well, I wanted you to know..." 

"Know what?" 

"I, I'm sorry about leaving you behind again. Sometimes it must feel like I do that all the time, and it isn't always fair." 

Gabrielle sat up, smiling at Xena. "No it's not. I can take care of myself, you know." 

"I know. But sometimes I worry about you. You're good, but you're not a warrior." 

"I know. And that's why I don't really mind you leaving me behind this time. I'm not a hunter, either and Rillian obviously is. And besides you need me to be here to make sure nobody else dies while you're hunting it down. I understand, and this time, I don't mind. Just don't do it all the time." 

"I won't." 

"Good." Gabrielle laid down again. "Make sure you wake me before you leave in the morning." 

"Gabrielle..." 

"Mhfff?" 

Xena looked down at Gabrielle, already half asleep, and smiled to herself. Maybe she'd be able to say something in the morning. "Sleep well, Gabrielle. I'll wake you in the morning." Quietly, Xena removed her armour and leathers, and settled down to sleep herself, lulled into slumber by the soft, gentle breathing of the woman she loved. 

It was still dark when Xena awoke, and dressed, and gathered up her blanket into the pack she planned to take with her on the hunt. Not far off, she heard the sounds of someone else stirring, and found Rillian also dressed and ready. Working as a team, they started a fire, set a kettle of porridge out to cook, and set about waking up the trackers. Soon the bustle had everyone stirring, even Gabrielle. Leaving Rillian to organise the trackers, Xena went to where Gabrielle still lay curled up in her blankets, sleepily watching the minor chaos flowing around her. 

"Gabrielle." 

The bard sat up, smiling. "I'll just be a minute. Is everybody ready?" 

"Just a few slowpokes finishing up their breakfast. We're leaving in a few minutes." 

"You go and get everyone ready. I'll be there in a minute." 

Xena nodded, and returned to the campfire, to see that Rillian and the others all stood ready and waiting for her. She turned to Rillian. "I have one or two more things to take care of. You lead them up towards the first spot we marked, I'll catch up with you." 

Rillian nodded, and turning back to the trackers, checked for the last time that each one had his or her packs and weapons, and led them out of the thicket towards the trail into the mountains. 

Gabrielle came up beside her. "Oh, did I keep you waiting? I'm so sorry. You'd better get going, I guess. I don't have to tell you to be careful, do I?" 

"No. But I want to check on Argo again before I leave. Come with me?" 

Gabrielle paused for a split second, struck by something different in Xena's tone. "Uh, sure." She followed Xena towards the smaller thicket where they had made a sort of stable for the horses. She watched quietly as Xena moved checked both horses carefully, paying special attention to Argo. 

"They've still got lots of fresh grass here, and water and they don't need much grain when they're not working..." 

"I know, Xena. I'll see to it they get everything they need. I've helped you take care of Argo for some time now." 

Xena smiled. "I know you will." She paused, taking a deep breath to calm her racing heart. The time was now, or not at all. "Gabrielle..." 

"Yes, Xena?" 

"Before I go, there's something..." She turned her head away, cursing softly under her breath. "I don't know how to say this." 

"Say what? Xena, you're not acting like yourself. What's wrong? Is there some kind of problem with this plan that you haven't told me about? Because if there is..." Gabrielle's voice grew sharp and scolding, as she remembered other times when Xena had been less than forthright about the dangers she faced in carrying out some plan. 

The warrior shook her head, dark hair tumbling freely, half hiding her face as she lowered her eyes. "No, nothing like that. It's just that I'm not good with words..." Xena's voice trailed off into silence. 

"What do you mean, you're not good with words? I've heard you inspire people a hundred times with your words. You are a leader, look at how you've got these people convinced of what needs to be done..." 

"Gabrielle. If you don't keep quiet and let me speak, I'll never find the words to say... what has to be said." 

"Well, what is it?" Gabrielle asked, her whole body quivering with impatience. This was not the Xena she knew, and she had not the slightest notion of the reason for this halting, reluctant conversation. 

There was a moment's silence. Xena could hear the band of trackers, led by Rillian, moving farther off towards the mountains. That was where she had to be, and yet, she had to say this first. "Gabrielle." Gabrielle opened her mouth as if to speak, but Xena cut her off with a gesture. "Hear me out, Gabrielle. Some things, I'm not that good at talking about. But I need to tell you this. I hope you'll understand, I mean no disrespect to Perdicas..." 

Gabrielle could keep silent no longer, frustration and confusion warring in her voice as she burst out, "Perdicas! What in Hades' name does Perdicas have to do with all this?" 

"I'm trying to tell you. You see, there's something I should have told you, long ago, but I thought there was all the time in the world for it. And then, after you married Perdicas, I felt I had no place to say it. But I haven't changed, and even though you probably don't feel the same way, I... " Xena took a deep breath, and looked Gabrielle straight in the eyes. "Gabrielle, I love you." 

The words struck Gabrielle like bolts of lightning. She had begun to hope that someday there might be a chance that the warrior princess would come to return the love she carried within her, but to hear that devoutly longed for declaration coming from those perfect lips, to see it glowing in those sapphire eyes was more than Gabrielle's mind could comprehend. Xena loved her. The words meant everything, and yet she herself could find no words to answer them. Xena loved her. The words rang out over and over in her ears, singing through her blood, exploding in her mind, leaving her senseless, motionless, soundless. In all the universe, there was only this. Xena loved her. 

Xena could not read the look that transformed Gabrielle's face. Was it simply shock, was it disbelief, or was it dismay, she could not tell. Urgently, she began to speak again, her words tumbling out now, quickly, running over each other like water through a rough and narrow channel, desperately trying to reassure Gabrielle that there was no need for her to do or say anything in response. "Gabrielle, don't say anything now. I'm not asking for anything from you, nothing has to change between us, but I can't keep this inside any longer. Just wait until I get back, and if you want to talk about this then, fine, and if not, then we never have to mention it again." 

Gabrielle continued to stare into Xena's anxious face, her mouth half-open, her eyes wide. She made no sound, but her mind was racing, screaming at her lips to make some sound, at her body to take some action in response, before the woman she loved with all her heart slipped away into the night. 

Xena reached out her hand, and gently ran one finger across Gabrielle's cheek. It seemed that she had her answer. Gabrielle's gaping amazement told her all she needed to know. But she had faced this pain before, and she knew that she could deal with it. "Don't worry about me, Gabrielle," she whispered, withdrawing her hand. "I'd never do anything to hurt you. Trust me. I'm still your friend, too." She backed away, one step, and then another, unwilling to turn away. "I'm sorry," she said, and finally turned away, taking great strides in her haste to get away from the sight of that dumbstruck face. 

Behind her, Gabrielle at last found her voice, her will to move. "Xena!" she cried out, throwing herself towards the swiftly retreating figure, already half obscured by trees. Xena spun around, with only seconds to react to the vision that met her eyes. Gabrielle, eyes glowing, arms spread wide, running towards her. Without thought, her own arms came up to catch and tightly hold the bard against her. Gabrielle wrapped her arms around Xena's neck and pulled her face down to meet hers. "Oh Xena, I love you, too," she whispered, as her lips sought Xena's, hungrily searching out the sweetness of her mouth. 

For a moment she was helpless to react, enspelled by these words that had turned resignation into joy. Hesitating, she made as if to draw Gabrielle back, to ask her if she really meant all that her words and eyes, and arms and lips were saying. Then all caution was swept away in the reality of Gabrielle's fingers twining in her hair, Gabrielle's mouth devouring hers. Like a desert plant opening to a rare and precious rainfall, Xena gave herself willingly, fervently to Gabrielle's embrace, to her passionate kiss. Every sensation was a miracle, the pliant warmth of Gabrielle's body moulded against her, the unexpected strength of the clasped arms that held her, the trails of fire left by Gabrielle's questing tongue as it stormed and conquered the moist depths surrendered by her parted lips. Her breathing grew ragged, and a low moan vibrated in her throat as their tongues wound around each other, and she pressed her own advance, thrusting past opened lips and tasting the softness within. Gabrielle gasped against her, and she felt the body of her beloved tremble, and begin to buckle, almost pulling her down into the inviting grass beneath their feet. With a strength she almost cursed herself for having, she raised her head and broke the spell. 

Still holding Gabrielle with one arm, Xena looked down into her eyes, and stroked her flushed face, running her fingers gently over her damp and swollen lips. "I have to go," she said. "They need me." 

"I know," Gabrielle replied. "So go." She smiled. "I'll be waiting, just like always." 

One last brushing together of lips, and Xena was gone to join the hunt, leaving a shaken yet triumphant bard gazing sightlessly in her wake.


	11. Chapter 11

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

### Chapter Eleven

How long she stood there, eyes unfocused yet somehow staring off into the distance, with Xena's kiss burning her lips and her heart, Gabrielle did not know. She was suddenly brought back to a semblance of awareness of where and when she was by a shy, soft voice in her ear. 

"It's always hard to say goodbye, isn't it?" Chloe asked, the knowing tone of her words inviting Gabrielle to join, if only for this moment, the sorority of those who waited for their heroes to return. 

Gabrielle nodded. "She can take care of herself, better than anyone I've ever known, but, at least when I'm with her, I know what's happening." 

"You're lucky, that way. Most of us always have to wait." The underlying note of pain and fear was clear in Chloe's voice. "Leo isn't really comfortable going out with the fishing boats, but he takes turns with his older brother, in his father's boat. He'd rather tend the gardens. I try not to think about what could happen whenever he goes out." 

Gabrielle gave her a quick hug. "Don't worry about Leo. Or any of your friends. Xena will take care of them." 

"I know she'll do her best. But Leo can be, well, headstrong at times. And Xanti is always trying to prove she can do things as well as the men - as if we all didn't already know that she's better than most of them. I just hope neither of them does anything stupid." 

Gabrielle took a deep breath. "They'll be all right. Now, we have things to do, so let's get started." She turned away from the path, back towards the camp. "So, Chloe, do you want to take charge of keeping the camp in order? Meals, keeping things running, making sure fresh trenches are dug when we need them, that sort of thing." 

"It's not much different from running a household, is it?" Chloe smiled. "I can do that, no problem." 

"Good. I'll take care of the horses - Argo's used to me, but she can be difficult around people she doesn't know. Kind of like her mistress, that way." Gabrielle smiled wryly. 

The others were waiting by the fire. Gabrielle slid in between two of them to pick up a bowl and help herself to what remained of the morning's breakfast. She looked around her, catching the eye of Pellicles and Antimone, the two youths she had assigned to the first watch. "I'll go out to the watchpost with you as soon as I'm finished here. You're both ready?" 

Antimone nodded. "Ready, but hoping that nothing happens." 

Gabrielle smiled at her. "I think we all hope that. We don't want to see any of you put at risk unless it's absolutely necessary, and I really don't want what you're doing to be the cause of any confrontation between you and your people." 

"Do you really think it could come to that?" This was Lamdas, the youngest of the youths who had followed Leonidas in support of Xena's plan. 

"I hope it doesn't, but I wouldn't lie to you. It could happen. Your Elders know why Xena and I came here. They know we won't leave until we've finished what we came to do. And they're going to notice that you've all gone missing. If we're lucky, they won't bother trying to look for you. If we're very lucky, they won't try to put any more of your friends up on that rock. But it could happen." 

Chloe spoke softly into the silence that followed Gabrielle's words. "She's right. And we have to be ready for it." 

Nervous glances flashed around the firepit, passing over the bent head of Gabrielle as she scooped up the remains of the grain porridge from her bowl and ate it quickly. 

"Do you think we'll have to fight?" asked Andymion, a tall lanky blond who seemed to take this thought with less concern than his fellows. 

Gabrielle looked up. "I hope not. Your Elders are good people, even if they have made a terrible mistake about how to deal with the Wingclaw. I don't think they'll want to turn on their children." She set down the empty bowl. "But let's hope that we never have to find out. Well, then, let's get going." She stood, then paused to look at the others. "Chloe is in charge of the camp, so do what she says while I'm away. Lamdas, if anything happens here before I get back, it's your job to run out to the watchpost and get me, understood?" 

Amid nods of assurance, Gabrielle picked up her staff as Pellicles and Antimone shouldered the day's provisions and gathered their own weapons. With a last reassuring smile at Chloe, Gabrielle led the others back along the lightly marked path they had followed the night before. 

As she led the others on a quiet march through the dense brush that lay between the campsite and the watchpost, Gabrielle fought to keep her mind on the task that lay before her, blocking out as best she could the memory of Xena's kiss. As long as no one came out from the village, there was really nothing to fear. Even if the creature came to the spire looking for easy prey, they would be safe in the woods. But once the villagers moved, anything could happen, even battle. Could these inexperienced village youths stand against the adults they had looked up to all their lives? And could she lead them against their own people, if it came to that? She had watched Xena take command of others more times than she could count, and she had her own experience at the siege of Potedeia to draw on, but this time, she was alone and facing attack on two fronts, one from the village, one from the sky. She tried to imagine herself as the warrior princess. What would Xena do, if the townsfolk came to stop them from keeping the rock free of sacrifices? 

Gabrielle snorted softly. That was easy. Xena would stand there as if she had not a care in the world, and tell them to go away and leave her to her business. And if they refused, well, Xena could probably take them all on by herself. But she was not Xena. Despite her growing confidence with a staff, she had nothing like Xena's battle skills, and really did not want them, even if they could have been hers. If the villagers attacked them, she would have to find another way, her own way. 

Before she knew it, they had reached the lookout, and Antimone was introducing her to Memnon and Phlebas. Seeing the exhaustion in their faces after their night on watch, Gabrielle left Antimone and Pellicles in charge after a few final instructions, and led them quickly back to camp, where Chloe fed them, and sent them to their grass pallets to sleep. Her duties as leader satisfied for the moment, Gabrielle went to see to the horses, and to be alone at last with her thoughts. 

Feeding the horses, and leading them to the nearby stream for water, occupied her thoughts completely at first, for despite two years in the company of Argo, she was not quite comfortable with animals the size of these warhorses. Fortunately, in recent months Argo had decided to obey her, at least when Xena was not around, and the other horse seemed inclined to be led and cared for without complaint. Gabrielle sighed. If only she could find a gentle little pony for herself, an animal that did not leave her feeling so small and high off the ground. It wouldn't be able to keep up with Argo at full gallop, but then not even Argo could sustain full gallop for very long. 

The next task of grooming Argo was a familiar and oddly soothing one, as she brushed and combed her, free to contemplate the shock that the mare's mistress had given Gabrielle earlier that morning. Certainly, through the other events of the morning, breakfast, the walk to the spypost and back, no matter how much she tried to ignore it, a small voice had been exulting in the back of her mind, over and over again, that Xena loved her, Xena had kissed her, Xena wanted her, was hers. But why reveal it now, she wondered. Could it be that this was some new realisation? But no, Xena had said that she had felt this way for a long time, long before she had married Perdicas. And it could hardly be the threat of danger, the separation. They had parted in perilous circumstances before. There really was nothing particularly unusual about this time, unless she somehow owed this sudden revelation to Rillian's sly but persistent needling of the warrior over the past days. 

She took a deep breath. Xena loved her. And knew, finally, that she loved Xena in return. But why, if she had loved her for so long, had she never spoken? Why had Xena let her walk away and marry Perdicas without even a word, a whisper, of how she herself felt? 

Gabrielle shook her head savagely, to clear the questions and doubts from her mind. There would be time to talk when Xena returned. For now, it was enough that the hiding, the pretending, was over, for both of them. And that Xena loved her. 

Leaving the horses on a loose tether in a different section of the thicket, Gabrielle returned to the common area and rejoined the others. The day passed without further event, as Gabrielle yielded to requests for tales of the famous Warrior Princess, and found to her surprise that her recounting of Xena's deeds had taken on an added dimension. Some passages seemed to evoke greater emotion in her; others she found awkward, and made notes to herself to rewrite with added insight. In the late afternoon, she sent the team for the evening watch, Andymion and Soter, out to change places with Pellicles and Antimone, and then, her voice tired at last, helped Chloe with dinner, saw to the horses again, and went to sleep after reminding Phlebas and Memnon to take the night watch once more. 

The second day passed much as had the first, but in the late morning of the third day, just as she had finished seeing to the horses, Pellicles ran suddenly into the camp, his face a mixture of panic and a tense excitement. Before he had time to do more than gasp out Gabrielle's name, the whole camp had clustered around him. 

"What is it?" she asked, pushing the others aside to stand face to face with the panting youth. 

"Gabrielle, they're coming. From the village!" 

Alarm flashed across the faces of the erstwhile young heroes. A babble of questions rose from half a dozen voices, as the full awareness of their situation stuck home. Gabrielle silenced them with a curt gesture. "Are they bringing another sacrifice?" 

"I don't know. They were too far off to see when I left. But there's a lot of them." 

"How many?" 

"I'm not sure... at least a dozen, maybe fifteen." 

Gabrielle looked around her at the fearful faces of the others, and took a breath to steady herself. No matter how frightened she might be, those around her were far less experienced and prepared, and needed her voice to guide them. Think like Xena, she whispered to herself, as she opened her mouth to address them. The words began to flow without her conscious thought. "First, everybody stay calm. We don't know what's going to happen yet. We all knew that sooner or later, they would come looking for you, and Xena and me, we've been planning for it. What we have to do now is make certain that no one else dies. I promise you, if there is any way to get out of this without a fight, I will do it." She looked over at Chloe. "Wake Phlebas and Memnon, we'll need everyone." Grabbing her own staff, she looked around at the others. "Gather your weapons, and let's go. 

"Chloe, I want you to come with us too, I might need you. Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you. Can you do that?" 

Chloe swallowed, and nodded. 

"Good. Is everyone ready? Follow me, then, and be quiet. We don't want to give ourselves away." 

After a quick and nervous passage through the woods, Gabrielle and the others slipped quietly into the sheltered hollow where Antimone waited for them. Keeping low, and making as little noise as possible, Gabrielle peered out at the reason for the signal of alarm. Beside her, Antimone pointed into the distance, and Gabrielle could see, marching along the path towards the sacrificial stone, a group of townsfolk, some wearing patched armour and carrying swords or spears. At their head was the Elder, Deiron. 

Lamdas looked at Gabrielle, fear and eagerness warring in his face. "This is it, isn't it? We'll have to fight them." 

Gabrielle shook her head. "Maybe not. See, they haven't brought anyone out to sacrifice. Maybe they're just looking for us, and if we ignore them, they'll go away." 

"Ignore them?" asked Andymion, shocked. 

"Yes, ignore them. Do you think Xena or I want to see you fighting your own kin? We're here to save lives, to end this horror, not to set families against each other. If there's any way to avoid this without anyone striking a blow, I'll take it... short of giving in to them, of course." 

Behind her, Gabrielle heard Antimone gasp. "What is it?" 

"It's my father. How could he do this? Years ago his own sister was one of the sacrifices. I remember him telling us how he cried for months. How could he come here, like this, to try and stop me?" 

"I don't know, Antimone." Gabrielle paused for a moment. Xena had always said that every scrap of knowledge was important. This might be something she could use, if it came to a confrontation. "Which one of them is your father?" 

Antimone pointed to a grey haired man in an old cuirass of boiled leather. "That's him. His name is Gordias." 

"Right, I see him. Anyone else have a father, or a brother out there?" Sotor pointed to his brother, Memnon to an uncle. "Right. Let's hope we don't have to fight, but if we do, Phlebas, I want you to stay here with Chloe. If it's going badly, get her out of here. Take the other horse, and get her away from here. The rest of you, follow my lead exactly. No bravado, no brilliant ideas, just wait for my word. Understood?" 

She looked each one in turn full in the eyes, waiting for a word or nod of assent. Each one, in turn, gave it. She nodded, half to herself. "Just remember, wait for my word for everything. And maybe, if we're lucky, no one will get hurt." 

The band of townsmen had come ever closer as they spoke, and now halted near the spire. Deiron looked around the site carefully, peering into the trees. Gabrielle and the others froze as his glance passed over their place of concealment, but he seemed not to see anything, and his surveying gaze passed by without pausing. 

He took a step towards the woods. "Xena!" he shouted. "Warrior Princess. I know you're there. Come out and face me!" 

Gabrielle motioned the others for quiet, and waited. 

"I know what you're doing, Xena. I know you're not alone. I don't know how you got to them, but I know there are others there with you. You can't win, Xena. The gods have cursed us. The gods will have their due." 

The lack of response seemed to unsettle the man, for as yet again his cry went unanswered, he turned from side to side, anger on his face, indecision in his bearing. "Xena!" he howled. "You will not get away with this. I'll find you, if I have to tear the forest apart!" 

Watching carefully as he turned to speak to the men behind him, Gabrielle motioned to the others in the watchpost to remain, and stood up quietly. Moving a short distance from their hiding place, she left the cover of the brushes, and called upon all the power of her bard's voice. "Xena isn't here. She's up in the mountains, doing what you should be doing instead. Stopping that monster." 

Deiron spun around to face her. "Ah, the little companion. Did Xena leave you here alone to try and stop us from carrying out the will of the gods?" 

Gabrielle stepped towards him. "I chose to stay here to keep you and your people from killing again." 

"We don't need strangers like you coming here telling us that our ways are wrong. We're the ones who have lived with this curse for generations, not you. We're the ones who know how best to deal with it. You and the Warrior Princess don't belong here. Go, and leave us to our fates." 

"And leave your sisters and daughters to die needlessly? Sorry, that's not what we came here for." 

"I tell you, we are cursed." 

"No, you are cowards. You've let your children die rather than study your enemy, learn how to destroy it and free yourselves from the fear you've lived in for all these years. It took strangers to realise that this is only a monster, like any other monster." 

"I'm warning you, if you try to stop us, you will regret it. We will not let you interfere. Leave this foolishness now, before you are hurt, or worse." 

"You would really try to kill someone who wants to save your children? Perhaps you would." Gabrielle signalled to the others, and she heard behind her the immediate answer of rustling branches as the youths of Thalassepolis stepped into place behind her. "But will you fight your own children? Look at them, people of Thalassepolis. They don't want to die for a superstition any longer. But they will fight to end this horror." 

She paused for a moment, looking at Deiron as he searched the faces of those who stood with her, seeking some weakness, some unwillingness. As his confidence turned to concern, she formed a silent prayer of thanks to whatever gods might be listening that her companions had held firm. 

She stepped forward one more pace, pressing her advantage. "We've made a pact, your sons and daughters, and Xena and I. We will fight you, if you try to hang another of your children up on that bloody rock. Do you want any more of your children's blood on your hands?" She could see the shadow of pain appear in his eyes at her words. Unrelenting, she pressed on. "What are you going to do now, Deiron?" Gabrielle asked. "Are you going to fight us here and now, take your children back to the village bound like slaves." Quickly she scanned the faces of the men, finding the signs of doubt, of hesitation, on a handful of faces. 

She struck again. "Or perhaps, you'll just leave them all tied up here, wounded or dying, like a summer picnic for the beast. How delightfully accommodating. Is that what you plan to do with your children, Deiron, is it?" Stunned, he shook his head. She raged on, before he could speak again. "You'll have to do something, Deiron, because if you don't, we'll just stay here, and every girl you put up on that rock, we'll cut down. We will not let another victim die." 

Deiron turned to his left and then to his right, looking for a moment at his companions, sensing them wavering before Gabrielle's words. "We'll stay here ourselves, and make certain that you don't interfere. The sacrifices will continue." 

"Oh will they? You've always left them to die alone, haven't you? Why? Isn't it because you know it's wrong, it's monstrous, it's evil? Isn't it because you know not one of you could stand there and watch the Creature devour his child in front of him?" She whirled to fix her stare on Antimone's father. "Could you do that? Could you stand here while Deiron ties Antimone to that rock? Could you stand here and watch the monster take her in its claws, and tear her to pieces, and swallow her still living flesh while you listen to her screams and see her blood... your blood, pouring down from the sky and staining the ground? Could you?" 

The man shuddered and turned away, his hands covering his face. Deiron grabbed him by the shoulder. "In the name of the Gods, Gordias, don't let her get to you. This is our way. We will stand it if we have to." 

Gabrielle laughed in derision. "This is your way," she mocked him. "Right. For the gods alone know how many years, your people have been doing this unimaginable thing, and not once have you been able to stand and look at what you're really doing. And you expect me to believe you'll start facing up to the horror of your choices now, just because now your own sons and daughters are ready to die, if they have to, to end this? I don't think so, Deiron. And neither do your friends. Look in their eyes, Deiron." 

Reluctantly, he turned, and saw the shame and horror written on the faces of the others. "We can't give up now," he pleaded with them. "We've been over this a thousand times, there is no other way. This is the will of the gods." 

"What if it isn't?" the man asked, sobbing. "What if we've been wrong?" 

It was all she needed. "Yes, people of Thalassepolis, what if you have been wrong? What if this was never a curse of the gods, but a terrible, meaningless litany of agonizing deaths. What if your sisters and daughters have never had to die? What if it has only been fear, and the guilt of men like Deiron, men who sent their loved ones to death, and now cannot bear to even imagine that there might have been another way out. Will you let this tragedy go on, or will you end it now?" 

One by one, the men who had followed Deiron laid down their weapons. Antimone's father, still sobbing, held his arms out imploringly to his daughter. Gabrielle turned to her, and nodded. "It's all right now. Go to him." Slowly, the two groups mingled, as relatives, neighbours, friends faced each other, seeing for the first time the open knowledge of the horrors they had fallen to, and the courage that would break them free from that horror. Gabrielle and Deiron were left alone, still face to face. 

The naked pain frozen on his face tore at her heart. She moved closer to him. "I know you only did what you thought was right. And I'm sure that your daughter knows that too. The dead can read our thoughts, you know. She knows how much you loved her." He stood motionless for another moment, then the first racking sobs tore from his throat. Gabrielle opened her arms, and Deiron collapsed against her shoulder, his pain and guilt and sorrow flowing freely at last as she held him close. 

Looking over Deiron's shoulder, Gabrielle could see two men standing close by, watching the weeping Elder, wavering as they tried to decide whether or not to intrude. She motioned to them, and as they approached, she gently eased the distraught man into the care of his friends. Behind them, the others, both the men of the village and the youths who had stood with her, slowly gathered around. 

"What should we do?" they asked, first one then another, uncertain of what to do, now that the confrontation was over, and in a manner that none of them could have imagined. 

"For Deiron? Take him home. He needs his family now. He needs to heal." As the two men led him away, Gabrielle spoke to those who remained. "As for the rest of us, the first thing we're going to do is cut every one of those ropes and chains down from that rock. And then, I think Xena could use some help hunting that monster."


	12. (unfinished)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a few scenes and an outline of what was to be next exist for this chapter.

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

###  Chapter Twelve (unfinished) 

Xena scanned the empty blue sky above her with a scowl. There had been no sign of the creature all day, and she had begun to fear that they had lost the trail after all. For five days now they had slowly followed their sightings of the beast, moving deeper into the mountains, far from any trails, even those made by the wild goats that lived on these slopes. The last sighting had been the afternoon before, when they had marked the creature appear from behind a huge col off to the north, then fly down below them into one of the ravines. Later, as they hastened towards the towering block of stone, they had glimpsed the beast once more, returning, rising towards the same point, and vanishing behind it. 

By nightfall, they had covered barely half the distance to the foot of the col, and had sought shelter in a narrow cleft in the rock. Rising early, they had completed the traverse of the canyons and gained the place where their quarry had last been seen. Venturing arond the cliffside, in the direction in which the beast had flown, they had seen yet another expanse of deeply folded and twisted rock, stretching off in the distance towards another mountain peak. Another multitude of possible nesting places, and no clue as to which direction to take. 

As they had done twice before, the hunting party settled into an early camp, in a shallow gully rainwashed into the side of the col, to wait for another glimpse of the creature that might lead them closer to its hiding place. Xena had set watchers to check in all directions, but could not leave off her own repetitive search of the skies. 

And yet, despite the need she felt to keep her own watch, her thoughts continued to veer away from the matter at hand, as they had done so often in the last five days, to the memory of soft, insistant lips, and a whispered declaration. 

* * *

A voice interrupted her reverie. It was Rillian. "One of the scouts you set to watch our back just came in. There's something you'd better have a look at." 

"Trouble?" 

"Hard to say. Maybe." 

Rillian led her towards the south end of the camp, where the scout stood, shifting nervously on his feet and glancing out along the path they had taken to this point. 

* * *

-Xena contemplates Gabrielle  
-Gabrielle and the villagers catch up to the hunting party.  
-explanations, and Xena has to deal with a Gabrielle who can achieve what she could not  
-hunting down the creature together, killing it, destroying the egg.  
-sort of a wild victory celebration there on the mountain  
-Xena and Gabrielle make love, rather sharply and violently, with all the unsaid things getting in the way  



	13. (unfinished)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only some notes of what was to happen and a single monologue exist for this chapter.

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

###  Chapter Thirteen 

-back in the village, big celebration, everybody happy except Xena and Gab, who have been making love, but not talking becasue there's been no time  
-Everybody thanks Gabrielle for ending the fighting, and Xena for tracking down and leading the creature... Xena figures out that they're equals...  
-Rillian does her bard thing and tells a tale of something that gets Gabrielle and Xena to realise they need to talk  
-Xena and Gab finally talk about (1) Perdicas, and (2) being equals  
-finally, a nice night together under a roof, in a nice soft bed...  
-In the morning, Gabrielle and Xena go one way, and Rillian goes another...  


What about Perdicas? 

Yeah, that's a big one. You have the right to know why. Part of it was, I didn't know if I could stand being with you... and not being with you, if you know what I mean. You're always so much inside of yourself, half the time I just don't know what you're thinking, or feeling... I never even suspected you were in love with me. I thought we were just friends, and that I was perhaps more important to you than most because I was some kind of symbol of your decision to be good... you know, first village you saved on your own, instead of attacked. 

But you never really needed me... at least it never seemed like you mneeded me. And he did. He wanted so much to leave the killing behind, and he didn't have your strength. He couldn't do it alone. 

Maybe I could have put up with just being a companion, but... part of it was the danger, and the hard marches, and the cold nights... I could put up with all of this if I had you, but it seemed like I never really did. And I knew that you always had one eye out for me, trying to protect me... and that scared me. What if something happened to you because you were too worried about me to protect yourself? It seemed as though I put you in more danger just by being there. 

And I did care for Perdicas, I won't deny him that. We grew up together, it was always sort of expected that we would get married. It must have hurt him horribly when I walked away from him to be with you... 

And I guess, to be honest, some of it is you, who you were, what you've done. I know that you've changed, that you're committed to righting all the wrongs from your past, but sometimes, I look at you and I can't help seeing the woman you were. I can accept her, but I can still see her. 

But all of that... your past, the danger, the hardship, all of that is nothing if you need me... if you love me. If I can have you beside me every night, I don't care if we sleep on bare rock. or the softest bed in the palace of Thebes. Because... the marriage wouldn't have lasted, you know. Even with just the few days we were together, I knew that I might not always enjoy sleeping out on rocks, and tromping through forests in the rain, but after all I'd done with you, settling down in Poteidea would have driven me crazy. 

And I knew that just caring for him, and being needed by him, wasn't enough. I never loved him. Not the way I love you... loved you even then. 

Why was I so upest when he was killed? He was my friend, we were kids together, he deserved a long and happy life, and she killed him. I'd have felt a little like that about anyone in my life who had to die like that. but what made it worse, what drove me more than a little mad for awhile, was that it was my fault. All he wanted was to give up the sword and settle down. I can recognise that look in a man's eye... if I'd turned him down, he would have been sad and hurt for a while, but then he would have gone back to Potiedea and married someone else, and had lots of children, and died an old man in his bed... but I brought Callisto down on him. She came for me - and he died because of it. It never should have happened. 

That's why I've been working so hard on his song. It's the only thing I can do to set right the wrong I did. I married him, without loving him, and because of me he died. I owe it to him to make sure that his memory lives - because I brought death down on him. I owe it to him to be truthful - because I wasn't, when it mattered most. I owe him that much. Can you understand that? 


	14. Epilogue

* * *

# Story Time

## by  
Morgan Dhu

###  Epilogue 

"And that is my Tale of the Warrior Princess and the Bard, how they Fought the Wingclaw, and Saved the Two Young Lovers, and Found Love of their Own," she spoke the formal conclusion of her story. "And now, children, you must all go to your homes, for the suns are setting and it is time to eat." 

Tired by their lessons and frolics, and soothed by the quiet magic of their storytime, one by one and two by two the children stood, most of them pausing for a hug and a kiss from the storyteller, and headed for their homes. Finally, only one child remained. The Storyteller looked down at the figure of her great grand niece, who stood deep in thought at her knee. 

Gently she chucked the little girl under her chin. "And what makes you so serious today, my little one?" 

"Did they love each other forever and ever?" 

"I don't know... I had to move on. But I think if anyone would, it would have been Xena and Gabrielle. That's part of why I love to tell their stories." 

"I want to do that too." 

"Love forever and ever?" 

The little girl made a face of impatience. "That's not what I mean!" 

"Ah... You want to become a storyteller?" 

"Yes. Just like you." 

"Remember, before you can tell a story, you must watch, and listen. And you must travel very, very far, and learn everything you can, wherever you travel." 

"I can do that. Will I be able to travel to where Xena and Gabrielle are?" 

"No, child, for they lived a long, long time ago. All that remains of them... is memories. And the stories. But there will be other heroes for you to meet, if this is truly what you want, and then your stories will make them live long after they are gone." 

"Are you sure?" 

The storyteller reached down and folded the child in to her breast. "Oh, yes, Guinan my love, I'm sure." 

THE END


End file.
